On July 6th, The Epoch Times reported that the Supreme Court ruled that Aaron and Melissa Klein, who operate Sweet Cakes by Melissa, a bakery specializing in custom-designed cakes, did not have to make cakes to celebrate same-sex weddings. The Kleins said that being forced to make a cake for same-sex weddings violated their religious beliefs. There is something important that needs to be noted here. The Kleins did not say that they wouldn’t bake a cake for a homosexual couple–they simply said that they would not bake a wedding cake. Is a business allowed to determined what type of service it will provide? If a printing company is asked to print an image they consider pornographic or sexually inappropriate, are they required to print it? This is a civil rights case, but it is also a case about whether or not a business owner has the right to choose what services he will provide–not to whom he will provide services, but what services he will provide. I think that is an important distinction.
The article reports:
The Supreme Court ruled on June 30 in favor of Christian bakers who said Oregon’s law requiring them to make cakes to celebrate same-sex weddings infringed on their constitutional rights.
The decision came hours after the nation’s highest court issued a landmark 6–3 ruling in favor of Christian website designer Lorie Smith of 303 Creative, who said a Colorado law that punished her for refusing to create websites for same-sex weddings violated her First Amendment rights.
“The First Amendment protects the rights of all Americans to speak freely and live according to their sincere religious beliefs,” said the bakers’ attorney, Trent McCotter of Boyden Gray and Associates in Washington.
“As the Supreme Court has recognized, carefully guarding these rights is all the more important when the beliefs expressed are controversial,” he said in a statement.
Left-wing activists have been targeting bakers for years for political purposes, asking Christian confectioners opposed to same-sex marriage to bake wedding cakes for gay marriage celebrations.
When the bakers refuse to make the cakes, these activists sue under anti-discrimination laws in hopes of securing favorable legal precedents.
Please follow the link to read the entire article. It explains how some organizations are trying to use the courts to limit the religious freedom of Christians. Note that Muslim bakeries don’t seem to be targeted.