I have been following with great interest the case of Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakes, in his Supreme Court case. He was a baker who had refused to make a cake for a wedding between two gay people. The couple sued him for violation of their civil rights. They claimed he was discriminating against them because they were gay and that this was illegal.
Phillips, however, pointed out that he was not refusing them service because they were gay but because making a special cake for them would violate his religious conscience by forcing him to participate in an activity he believes is wrong. He would be using his artistic talents to support something against what he believed. He noted that he also has refused to make cakes for Halloween as they celebrate something which he finds offensive. He said that he would not have refused the couple if they had bought a cake that was premade.
The Supreme Court came down on his side, but did not really make a sweeping decision in protecting the religious liberties of the people who refuse service for things they do not like. In fact, the Phillips decision has already been quoted by an Arizona court against a similar case! So, there is more to be done to protect religious liberty.
The court should have said that people, even businesses, that provide nonessential goods and services ought to be allowed to refuse service or goods when it would end in supporting something they think is wrong. A very good illustration of this is the imaginary case of a Jewish baker who is asked by neo-Nazis to bake a cake for a celebration of Hitler's birthday. Does anyone think that the baker should be forced to do this? Of course not.
But I also see something a little broader here with this illustration. Why should a baker be forced to participate in such a thing even if they were not Jewish or religious at all? In other words, isn't the conscience of the baker something which should be protected? I do not think an atheist baker should be forced to do this even if he has no religious motivation.
One thing that modern society needs to protect is the conscience of an individual. So, issues like this go beyond just the right of Christians to uphold their biblical values against things to the contrary, but it seems that various judges and bureaucrats and politicians are trying to force their values down our throats. This is nothing but totalitarianism.
We have short historical memories. The Puritans came to the New World to practice their religion freely. They were oppressed in England. Once they established themselves here they refused to allow others, like the Baptists, their religious freedom. Our Founding Fathers recognized that all must have their freedom, especially religious freedom, and put that in our First Amendment. I kind of wished that they had included something more general about the conscience of the individual. It seems to me that really was their intention - maximum freedom for the individual over against those who have power.
Do you want to stand for the powerless? Stand for the Jack Phillips who simply want to run their businesses without being forced to support what they do not believe in. It seems that, as we learn from history, that those who want rights and get them often turn against those who disagree with them. The oppressed (if that's what they even were) become the oppressors.
