Cake… An Issue of Civil Rights?

First question… would you want someone that adamantly disagrees with your marriage to bake you a cake for your special day? My own answer would be no. Why would I want someone to bake me a cake, host my wedding, design me a gown, or officiate my wedding, if they didn’t support the union in the first place?

I recently, against my better judgment, got into a Facebook debate regarding Sweet Cakes baker Melissa Klein being harassed, sued, and ultimately shut down because she respectfully chose to decline making a cake for a lesbian couple’s wedding, and instead referred them elsewhere.

These ladies were return customers. They were obviously treated with respect and appreciated the service and/or the goods they got at this bakery. Sweet Cakes didn’t discriminate, or refuse service to them because they were gay. The reason Melissa chose not to bake the cake is because she didn’t want to participate in a religious ceremony that she didn’t agree with.

Second question… should someone be forced to participate in a religious ceremony that they don’t agree with? I’d say no. But, apparently many think the answer to this is yes.

One argument I hear to this is that baking a cake is not ‘participating in a religious ceremony’… oh, so since YOU don’t think it is, then no one else can think it is?

Another argument is that if you are a business owner, you don’t have the right to practice religion inside your company. Why not? It is your sweat, your risk, your time, your effort, and your passion going into the business… why wouldn’t you deserve the right to live out your dream the way you want? Because other disagree with you?

The Human Rights Campaign mission states that they strive to achieve fundamental fairness and equality for all. The mission of the ACLU LGBT Project is to create a society where the LGBT community can enjoy the constitutional rights of freedom of expression and association. I think ALL people should enjoy fairness, equality, the right of expression and association… EVEN CHRISTIANS!!!

The gay agenda cries for equality, tolerance, and acceptance, but it appears they just mean for themselves, not for people that disagree with them. Equality isn’t squashing one group’s rights to provide benefit to others. Under the first amendment, Melissa has the right to practice her religious beliefs. How does the right to a cake trump that? This situation isn’t a gay rights issue… it’s a flagrant assault on anyone that disagrees with the gay lifestyle.

If I am going to accept a gay person, then that gay person should accept me. I am a Christ follower. It is in my make-up, it is WHO I am. I don’t have to agree with the gay lifestyle, and they don’t have to agree with my lifestyle, let’s agree to disagree without harassment, and lawsuits… that goes for both sides of this argument. The goal should be to live in harmony with one another, to enjoy mutual respect in a world with issues bigger than wedding cakes.

My co-debators on Facebook have a history of bashing and insulting Christians, and supporting equality for gay people. Why do they have a right to their beliefs and lifestyles, but I don’t have a right to mine?