The Bakers Who Say, "I Choose to Serve God"

"I am who I am and I want to live my life the way I want to live my life, and, you know, I choose to serve God."

Apparently to some people this is a horrific and discriminatory statement and statements like these must be silenced. It's a quote from Melissa Klein who along with her husband Aaron lost her Oregon bakery business Sweet Cakes by Melissa when the Kleins were court ordered to pay a lesbian couple $135,000 in emotional damages for declining to bake their same-sex wedding cake. Those emotional damages? Here are some---get ready for a good laugh: "acute loss of confidence," " "high blood pressure," "impaired digestion," "loss of appetite," pale and sick at home after work," "resumption of smoking habit," "shock," "stunned," surprised," "uncertainty," "weight gain," "worry." You get money for these things? And a baker who can't bake your cake causes them? It sounds more like a tantrum. What are they, four years old? One of our twins once had a huge long tantrum over wanting a whole piece of cake instead of the last half of a piece. She was four. We have it on video tape. Childishly hilarious.By the way, the lesbians had been served as regular customers at the bakery. It was just the event that the Kleins could not in good conscience participate in.

The Kleins lost their shop. But the judge wasn't done with them yet. He also ordered that the Kleins "cease and desist from publishing, circulating, issuing or displaying . . . any communication, notice, advertisement or sign of any kind to the effect that any of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, services or privileges or a place of public accommodation will be refused, withheld from or denied to, or that any discrimination will be made against, any person on account of sexual orientation." Believe it or not, the above quote from Melissa was one of the communications the judge cited as discriminatory.

It's a clear case of  people's unlimited sexual whims being favored over people's constitutionally guaranteed right to freely exercise their religion. And it's totally outrageous. We have some bad laws and some bad judges. But all that aside, since the Kleins no longer own a public accommodation business, it's unclear how this gag order can be applied or enforced. It appears to be more of an attempt to bully and intimidate outspoken Christians than anything else. 

It's interesting that gays can say the same sort of thing: "I am who I am and I want to live my life the way I want to live my life, and, you know, I choose to act gay." And everyone is supposed to fall all over themselves celebrating their sexual behavior, and of course totally shut up if they don't think it's a good idea. But if a Christian says the same sort of thing they are targeted and sued and lose their business and are ordered never to speak or write or communicate their religious beliefs in any way. That's what this all comes down to: For heaven's sake, don't offend gays because they'll have a huge tantrum. But go ahead and offend Christians all you want.

Why can't we let the public decide? For instance, if a hotel owner publishes his refusal to serve a certain type of customer---interacial couple, gay couple, Christian couple, Muslim couple, whatever, and prospective customers decide he is a real jerk because of that, they go to some other hotel. Simple. He loses business. He might even go out of business. What is all this forcing people to comply with some arbitrary double standard people with authority at the moment have pulled out of a hat? Let people make their own hotel beds and lie in them. And let people eat cake from some other bakery. News flash: It's not a perfect world. Not everybody is going to fit into one mold. Nobody can force people to like everyone and everything. How has it worked in the past? It hasn't. Things only get worse when anyone tries to force people.

Aaron Klein says, "I personally, I am a man of faith and I believe that Jesus Christ is the answer and I have every right to speak on that . .  . It's an affront to the freedom in this country for any government agency to do what they are doing." Amen.

We here at SoL have also been shut up and told to shut up through the years. We've received death wishes and even had what is called a terroristic death threat which was looked into by the FBI. And that's not all. We get every sort of angry accusation and goofy criticism that can be devised by the mind of man. But no tantrums and no emotional damage here (at least not in public). We choose to serve God.