‘Anti-Gay, Hate Cakes’ New Flash Point in Culture War
The Colorado man who alleges he was denied service by a Denver bakery because of his Christian beliefs is speaking out after the business owner and others have called his request for two Bible cakes “hateful and discriminatory.”
Bill Jack says he was willing to wait until May of this year for a Colorado civil rights division to rule on his discrimination complaint against Azucar Bakery owner Marjorie Silva, who he says refused to bake two Bible cakes with specific verses and messages on them.
But the Castle Rock man takes exception to what he says are errors about the cakes’ messages, which one American Civil Liberties Union attorney called “obscenities.”
“I requested two cakes in the shapes of open Bibles,” Jack told Christian talk-show hosts Steve Kelley and Krista Kafer.
“On the first cake, I requested ‘God hates sin and Psalm 45:7.’
“On the facing page, I requested ‘Homosexuality is a detestable sin and Leviticus 18:22.’
“On the second cake, I requested ‘God loves sinners and Romans 5:8’
“In addition, I asked for two groomsmen holding hands with a Ghost-buster sign behind them,” says Jack.
Ironically, Jack believes Silva had a right to refuse his request for two Bible cakes with those verses and messages on them.
“I support the bakers’ rights to deny me service if it violates their conscience,” says Jack.
He says his actions were both “intentional and provocative, and the law was either broken or it was not.”
“I believe she (Silva) should have liberty to reject me on the basis of my creed.
“I am very intentional about this in trying to expose a bad law that’s being inequitably applied to a group of Christians,” says Jack of a Colorado statute that prevents discrimination of the basis of religion, sexual orientation and other protected classes.
He’s discovered support from a pastor and legislator from Colorado Springs. Republican Rep. Gordon Klingenschmitt, R-Colorado Springs, is pushing a new law that would prevent civil rights complaints against anybody who refuses to create art or advocate speech with which they disagree.
“I’m a Christian minister, and I believe the Bible, but I will defend to the death someone else’s right not to have to print the Bible in their artwork,” Klingenschmitt was reported as saying in The Denver Post.
Silva says she offered Jack icing so that he could write the messages himself, but he claims she refused him service, which led to his complaint with the Department of Regulatory Affairs.
Jack says he filed the complaint as a private citizen, not as an instructor with Worldview Academy, which teaches students how to defend and share their Christian faith through summer camps. Jack is both a co-founder and frequent speaker at Worldview Academy events.
He claims friendship with another Colorado baker, Jack Phillips, who refused to bake a wedding cake for two gay men because of his Christian beliefs.
Owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Phillips is hoping a Colorado Court of Appeals court reverses a judge’s 2013 ruling that he did discriminate by denying service to the couple. The judge’s ruling ordered Phillips to “reeducate” his staff. He has stopped baking wedding cakes.
“I met with Jack Phillips recently,” says Jack. “He told me, ‘Bill, in the last three minutes, a dozen Christians have lost their lives because of their stands for Christ. This is nothing,’ “
A Christian group, Alliance Defending Freedom, supports both Masterpiece and Azucar in the owners’ separate and similar decisions, resulting in two free speech cases—one alleging discrimination against gays by Phillips; the other discrimination against a Bible-believing Christian by Silva.
A self-described half-Catholic, half-Jewish Peruvian immigrant, Silva told a Denver radio audience she’s baked “many” wedding cakes for same-sex couples and that her competitor—Masterpiece Cakeshop—would have been the better choice for Jack’s Bible cakes.
Silva, who calls herself a Christian, described her half-Jewish, half-Catholic beliefs to Out Front, a gay newspaper in Denver. It’s online edition labeled Silva’s views pro-LGBT.
Silva and Phillips, seemingly polar opposites, are justified in their deeply-held convictions, freedom of expression and conscience, according to the ADF.
“Every American is guaranteed the freedom to live, work, think and speak without fear of being punished for exercising these very basic freedoms,” said ADF Senior Attorney Jeremy Tedesco.
“ADF vigorously opposes tribunals like the Colorado Civil Rights Commission punishing citizens for doing nothing more than exercising their constitutionally protected rights.
“Ms. Silva should not be forced to use her artistic abilities to further a message with which she sincerely disagrees, and neither should Jack Phillips,” Tedesco said.
Jack is a frequent speaker at Worldview Academy which, in a release, states his actions don’t represent the group.
“Worldview Academy believes that God unconditionally loves every person. We also believe in liberty and justice for all. Consequently, we support the Colorado bakery owner’s right—and the right of all other bakery owners—to not undertake work which would violate their core beliefs,” the statement reads.
Randy Sims, executive director of Worldview Academy added, “We believe that the right of conscience should be guaranteed to all people equally and fairly.”
“It was clearly Ms. Silva’s right to decline to promote a message with which she so clearly disagreed,” ADF’s Tedesco said. “The Civil Rights Commission already punished Jack Phillips for acting consistently with his conscience, so it will be interesting to see if the commission disregards the fundamental freedoms all Coloradans or plays favorites instead.”
