{"id":39383,"date":"2021-03-31T10:42:59","date_gmt":"2021-03-31T15:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mbcpathway.com\/?p=39383"},"modified":"2021-03-31T10:42:59","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T15:42:59","slug":"colorado-cake-artist-again-defending-religious-liberty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mbcpathway.com\/2021\/03\/31\/colorado-cake-artist-again-defending-religious-liberty\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado cake artist again defending religious liberty"},"content":{"rendered":"

DENVER (BP) \u2013<\/strong> Colorado cake artist Jack Phillips is again defending his freedom to practice his Christian faith in a case that is part of the ongoing, legal faceoff between religious liberty and sexual liberty.<\/p>\n

Phillips \u2013 who won a significant, though limited, victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 \u2013 appeared as the defendant in a state-court trial that began March 22 as a result of a discrimination lawsuit filed for his refusal to provide a cake celebrating a gender transition. Denver District Court Judge A. Bruce Jones presided over the two-and-a-half-day trial in a lawsuit by Autumn Scardina that contends Phillips violated the Colorado Anti-discrimination Act (CADA) by denying service based on \u201csexual orientation.\u201d It is uncertain when Jones will issue an opinion.<\/p>\n

Scardina, who reportedly began identifying as a woman in 2010, filed suit against Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, in 2019 after Phillips declined to make a pink birthday cake with blue frosting to commemorate the gender transition.<\/p>\n

In its 7-2 opinion in 2018, the Supreme Court ruled the Colorado Civil Rights Commission (CCRC) violated the religious free exercise clause of the First Amendment by penalizing Phillips for refusing to design and decorate a cake for the wedding of two men. The high court said the commission demonstrated \u201creligious hostility\u201d toward Phillips \u2013 who believes marriage is only between a male and a female \u2013 but also indicated it might rule differently in other contexts with similar facts.<\/p>\n

Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), said in written comments Friday (March 26), \u201cThe Supreme Court was right when they ruled against the hostility the state showed toward Jack Phillips\u2019 religious convictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe onset of another trial of this matter should remind all Americans \u2014 whether in agreement or disagreement with Phillips \u2014 that the question is whether the state can force a person to violate conscience in speech using one\u2019s artistic gifts. Our commitment to a free public square in this country means that we should debate and argue important questions without state coercion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawyers for Phillips in both cases have argued he doesn\u2019t refuse people but rather messages that contradict his religious beliefs.<\/p>\n

\u201cJack Phillips serves all people, no matter how they identify, but cannot violate his conscience and create custom cakes celebrating all messages,\u201d said Jonathan Scruggs, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), in a written statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, he is not alone. There are cases like these across the nation where an artist\u2019s livelihood \u2013 and in some instances, their homes and personal assets \u2013 are on the line simply for not wanting to speak a message that violates their core convictions. These cases represent a disturbing trend: our system of justice is being weaponized as nothing more than an arm of cancel culture to ruin people with whom one disagrees.\u201d<\/p>\n

ADF represented Phillips in the earlier case that went to the Supreme Court and is supporting his defense in the latest one. The ERLC filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court in support of Phillips before the 2018 decision.<\/p>\n

The cases involving Phillips are among multiple ones in the last several years dealing with the freedom of business owners, especially wedding vendors, to exercise their religious faith by declining to provide services for such events as same-sex ceremonies.<\/p>\n

During the March 22 proceedings, John McHugh, the lawyer representing Scardina, said Phillips and Masterpiece Cakeshop \u201chave sincerely held religious beliefs that must be respected and treated fairly. But these beliefs do not exempt them from the same laws the rest of us must follow and do not permit them to deny Ms. Scardina goods and services simply because they reject her gender.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said what Phillips and Masterpiece \u201care asking for is a recognition of their right to discriminate against LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] people based on their religious beliefs. No such right exists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sean Gates \u2013 an ADF-allied lawyer representing Phillips \u2013 told Jones March 22 the defendant\u2019s Christian faith affects his entire life, including how he conducts business.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of his religious beliefs, Jack Phillips cannot create cakes for all messages,\u201d Gates said. Phillips and his wife Debbie decided before they opened the shop in 1993 they were \u201cnot going to create cakes with messages that conflict with their faith and the guidebook, the Bible,\u201d Gates said.<\/p>\n

As a result, Gates said, Phillips has refused requests for various cakes, including those associated with Halloween, those that celebrate marijuana or those that contain sexually explicit, racist or demeaning messages, including about people in the LGBT community.<\/p>\n

If Phillips baked the cake Scardina requested, \u201cthe message would be that he agrees that a gender transition is something to celebrate,\u201d Gates told Jones. \u201cThat\u2019s not something he agrees with.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one should be compelled to celebrate what they don\u2019t believe in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scardina made the request for a cake on the same day in 2017 that the Supreme Court agreed to accept the initial case involving Phillips. The CCRC filed charges the next year against Phillips and Masterpiece in response to a complaint from Scardina. After Phillips sued the state, the commission dropped the charges in 2019.<\/p>\n

In early March, Jones dismissed from Scardina\u2019s suit a claim that Phillips and Masterpiece were guilty of deceptive and unfair trade practices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colorado cake artist Jack Phillips is again defending his freedom to practice his Christian faith in a case that is part of the ongoing, legal faceoff between religious liberty and sexual liberty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":26726,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_selected_social_profile":[]},"categories":[177,7,8,12],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nColorado cake artist again defending religious liberty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Colorado cake artist Jack Phillips is again defending his freedom to practice his 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