We are rapidly approaching a tipping point in America. The cultural wildfire is burning.
The day is coming, sooner than most think, when we will each have to choose whether to obey God or man, dictatorial bureaucrats or the Constitution, tyrannical judges or our own consciences.
The sooner we grasp this truth the better: simply because a court makes a ruling does not make it right.
Because a law exists is not sufficient reason to obey it.
When Pharaoh ordered all newborn boys to be slaughtered, the Hebrew midwives refused. When the law ordered Northerners to return runaway slaves, most refused. When the United States Supreme Court affirmed “separate but equal” as the law of the land, good citizens refused to comply and fought to end it.
So it is today. As Josiah Gilbert Holland said, “Freedom weeps, wrong rules the land, and waiting justice sleeps.”
The Colorado Supreme Court has chosen not to intervene on behalf of Jack Phillips who refused to decorate (not bake, but decorate) a cake for a same-sex union ceremony—when such unions were illegal in Colorado.
Erick Erickson and I spotlight this case in You Will Be Made to Care:
We have already seen how Jack Phillips Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado has been made to care by this wildfire burning through our culture. The details of the case are chilling. For years Phillips served both gay and straight customers equally. But when a gay couple insisted that Phillips bake a custom wedding cake for them in 2012, he declined.
According to an administrative law judge who reviewed the case, “Phillips believes that decorating cakes is a form of art, that he can honor God through his artistic talents, and that he would displease God by creating cakes for same-sex marriages.”
And get this: Phillips offered to sell the couple a cake he had already made that they could then customize as they desired. They refused, insisting that he be made to decorate it for them.
Phillips made his faith priorities clear: “I’m a man who is devoted to following Jesus Christ. He’s the one that’s in charge of all this…. It’s not up to the courts to decide what marriage is. It’s up to God to decide that. If we are living in obedience to Jesus Christ and the teachings of the Bible we are on the right side of history—no matter what they say.”
On August 13, 2015, a Colorado State Court of Appeals ruled Phillips must make cakes for gay weddings if he is to make any cakes at all.
His attorney Jeremy Tedesco said, “Government has a duty to protect people’s freedom to follow their beliefs personally and professionally rather than force them to adopt the government’s views.”
Some have cried discrimination, claiming that Phillips is a hater who refused service to homosexuals. But that is not what happened. He was happy to sell the gay couple a cake that he had made—but that was not enough. They insisted that give his seal of approval to their ceremony by using his baking artistry to create and decorate a customized cake that would celebrate their relationship. They insisted that he violate his conscience. And the government agreed.
To add insult to injury, the court ordered that his entire staff undergo training in the state’s policies—including his eighty-eight-year-old mother.
Re-education camp for bakers has come to America.
David Leach over at The Strident Conservative adds:
Proof of the commission’s absolute cluelessness in this case is provided by Commission Chairwoman, Katina Banks:
“You can have your beliefs, but you can’t hurt other people at the same time. Religious freedom is undoubtedly an important American value, but so is the right to be treated equally under the law — free from discrimination.”
An “American value?” I’m afraid not, Ms. Banks. IT’S A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT!!
Banks isn’t the only idiot involved in the case who shouldn’t be. Monica Marquiz, one of the justices who voted not to hear the appeal, was the Colorado GLBT Bar Association’s 2009 Outstanding GLBT Attorney Award winner.
Conflict of interest anyone?
When laws and bureaucratic rulings dictate immorality, we are under no obligation–biblically or constitutionally–to comply.
A time of sifting is upon us, a time where we will—each of us—be forced to choose between God and man.
That choice will arrive differently for each of us, but it is coming, of that you can be certain. Are you ready?
Photo credit: Public Domain
