As the “woke” crowd has insisted everyone accept the new politically correct morality, it has sometimes run roughshod over Christians insisting they have to stick with biblical morality. Colorado baker Jack Phillips was doing that when he told two gay men he wouldn’t bake a cake to celebrate their same-sex marriage He said his conscience wouldn’t allow it. The fight over that went all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Phillips won. He has a new book out now – The Cost of My Faith: How a Decision in My Cake Shop Took Me to the Supreme Court. It calls on people of faith to stand up for their beliefs, even when the government says that’s a crime.
Phillips explained to CBN News in a little more depth why he couldn’t design and bake a cake for two men celebrating their marriage.
“The Bible is pretty clear that God made male and female and He joined them together in marriage,” Phillips said. “And marriage was His design, His idea. I’m not smart enough to do anything like that. And He created it unique and special between a man and a woman and any other view of that would go against biblical principles.”
Not About Discrimination or Homophobia
Phillips insisted his refusal wasn’t about discrimination or homophobia. From the beginning, Phillips and his wife agreed there were many designs and orders they would not fulfill because of their faith and conscience.
He recalled, “Among them would be cakes to celebrate Halloween, cakes that had alcohol in them, cakes that would denigrate other people or belittle them, including people that identify as LGBT.”
As for denigrating, Phillips takes issue with the labels and accusations thrown at him by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission as it ruled his freedom of religion provided no right to refuse baking the cake in question.
Colorado Commissioner Lumped in Jack with Nazis & Slave-Owners
He still sounded upset as he said, “One of the commissioners said that religious freedom was ‘a despicable piece of rhetoric’ and that it’s been used for different things like slavery and the Holocaust. And to compare not creating a cake that celebrates a marriage that I couldn’t do…comparing that to the Holocaust and slavery were particularly offensive.”
He continued, “Especially the Holocaust part, because my dad served in World War Two. He landed at Normandy, and he fought through the Battle of the Bulge. And he was part of the group that helped free Buchenwald Concentration Camp. And he saw the horrors. I’ve looked up Buchenwald and seen the horrors of that, and to be compared to the Nazis and those concentration camps for not creating a cake that celebrates this marriage was particularly offensive to me.”
Phillips Stayed in the Fight Because He Knew It Was About so Much More Than Him
The commission ordered Phillips to either bake the gay wedding cake or stop making wedding cakes altogether, something that would kill about 40 percent of his business. It also ruled his staff go through mandatory re-education to teach them the baker was wrong. Phillips, however, refused to surrender, realizing his decision to fight for his business, faith, and conscience could affect all Americans.
“This has been so much more than just ‘can Jack go back to making cakes again?’ or anything like that,” Phillips asserted. “It’s sort of ‘every American has the right to live and work according to their conscience without fear of punishment, especially punishment from the government in this way.'”
Jon Scruggs of Alliance Defending Freedom was one of the lawyers fighting for Phillips, and he said of the baker, “His case was really important, right? It was about the freedom of all Americans to control what they say and about the messages they believe in.”
‘Quiet Faithfulness’ in the Face of Numerous Defeats
Scruggs was amazed at how cool and calm the baker’s faith in God kept him through years of legal battles.
“Jack lost numerous times before we got to the U.S. Supreme Court. And as the lawyers, we would get so frustrated about what was going on,” Scruggs admitted. Then he said of his client, “And he just had such a quiet faithfulness and trust that God was in control of the judges’ opinions and of the results. It was really a testament.”
Jack Phillips had an opportunity to share his true character and faith outside Washington’s Newseum when he ministered to a young gay man reading headlines about Phillips’ victory in the U.S. Supreme Court that had just happened the day before.
Phillips recalled, “He broke into tears and he was like ‘What’s going to happen to us? What’s going to happen to me? What about our rights?'”
‘I Am Not a Hateful Person’
The baker assured the young man this wasn’t a loss for homosexual rights and emphasized he – Phillips – wasn’t some anti-gay bigot.
“I tried to be compassionate with this young man, and tell him this is not who I am. I am not a hateful person. I gave him my card with my phone number and tried to talk with him and say ‘You can reach me anytime at this number.'”
Phillips insists no matter how much pressure is put on Christians to conform to various agendas and what’s politically correct, they must stand by God and their faith.
Christians Must Draw Their Lines in the Sand
“We still as Christians have to follow what the Bible teaches and follow Christ’s mandates,” the Colorado baker asserted.
In his book The Cost of My Faith, he explains it’s a practice he and his family continue to preach.
“We decided which cakes we would and would not create,” he told CBN News. “It was like drawing a line in the sand that we couldn’t cross. And, we still have to as Christians, as Americans, draw our lines and know where we stand and know what we’ll fight for.”
The remainder of this article is available in its entirety at CBN
