Christians have been under assault in America for quite some time now, even moreso in the past eight years where the previous federal administration routinely targeted them. From refusing to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, to demanding that nuns violate their faith with regard to genocide of the pre-born, the attacks have been relentless. And few have been more jarring than the attacks on Christian bakers who’ve refused to provide wedding cakes for same-sex couples.
Colorado resident Jack Phillips, a bakery-owner and Christian, is one such man. He was compared, by his own state’s Civil Rights Commissioner, Dianne Rice, to those who perpetrated the Holocaust. From The Daily Signal, her words:
I would also like to reiterate what we said in…the last meeting [concerning Jack Phillips]. Freedom of religion and religion has been used to justify all kinds of discrimination throughout history, whether it be slavery, whether it be the Holocaust…I mean, we can list hundreds of situations where freedom of religion has been used to justify discrimination. And to me it is one of the most despicable pieces of rhetoric that people can use—to use their religion to hurt others.
Trouble is, Phillip’s father witnessed the atrocities of Hitler’s Germany firsthand: as a veteran of World War II. Watch:
In Rice’s warped worldview, refusing to provide a cake to a same-sex couple, which would violate Jack’s personal faith, is the equivalent of the mass genocide perpetrated by the Nazis in World War II. Not only is Rice’s commentary an affront to religious freedom in this nation—where are the attacks on the Muslim faith, which has similar views on same sex marriage?—but a slap in the face to any remaining survivors, their families, and the millions who died in the Holocaust.
Ms. Rice owes Mr. Phillips a full-throated apology. And she needs to read the full text of the First Amendment, which guarantees the right to practice one’s faith as one sees fit, without the threat of government interference.
In 2014, Phillips was successfully sued for declining to provide a ceremony cake to a same-sex couple. His appeal will be heard by the Supreme Court. Here’s hoping the SCOTUS sees it that way, too.
I doubt SCOTUS will rule adequately in favor of Mr Phillips. It might rule in his favor, but I doubt it will be as full-throated a defense of liberty as it should be.
SCOTUS is part of the totalitarian, anti-Constitutional blight on this fair land.
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