A Bouquet Of Injustice

This past June, the United States Supreme Court ruled

in favor of Colorado baker, Jack Phillips, regarding his First Amendment

right to his religious beliefs as a Christian when he refused to bake

a cake for a same-sex couple.  But even a decision made by the

highest court in the land seems to have no bearing on the

state of Colorado's Civil Rights Commission, which has

once again cited Mr. Phillips to be in violation of state law

by refusing to bake a cake to celebrate the "transgendered status"

of a woman named Autumn Scardina.

Colorado Baker Jack Phillips

According to the organization Alliance Defending Freedom, on

the very same day that the US Supreme Court decided to hear Jack Phillip's

case, Scardina, an attorney, called the Masterpiece Bake Shop asking

for a custom cake.  She wanted a cake that would be blue on the

outside and pink on the inside in order to celebrate her

"transition from male to female."

Of course, Mr. Phillips declined to create the cake, which Ms. Scardina

was hoping for, so that she could file a complaint against him with the

Colorado Civil Rights Commission for "discriminating against her

gender identity".  According to Aubrey Elenis, director of the

Colorado Civil Rights Division, Jack Phillips had "denied her

equal enjoyment of a place of public accommodation."

The harassment of Jack Phillips by this woman and the CCRC

is outrageous, especially when it is clear to anyone who is paying

attention that like the gay couple who sued him for discrimination,

Autumn Scardina has also deliberately targeted this Christian man for

persecution due to his deeply held religious beliefs regarding gender, 
or that God created only two- man and woman in His own image.

Washington State Floral Designer

Barronelle Stutzman

In a case similar to that of Jack Phillips, Washington state resident 

Barronelle Stutzman, a gifted floral artist, stands to lose her business,

her home, as well as her retirement savings because she refused to 

provide the floral arrangements for a same-sex wedding.

In her situation, the dissatisified client named Rob was a regular

customer at her shop and Barronelle had willingly created 

custom flower creations for all sorts of events for him 
over the years without any complaints.

However, when he told her that he and his long-time partner, Curt,

were getting married and that he wanted her to design the flowers

for the event, Barronelle politely but firmly declined, saying that

she did not wish to hurt his feelings, but she that did not believe in

same-sex unions and as much as she loved Rob, she could
not create something which compromised her faith.

.

Although Barronelle did offered Rob alternatives-she was willing to

sell him prearranged or loose flowers, and she also recommended the

names of three other shops-the floral artist remained adamant in

her decision and believed that Rob, whom she felt had respectfully

disagreed with her, understood as she hugged him goodbye.

Unfortunately, someone leaked out the story to the media,

which then prompted Washington State Attorney General

 Bob Ferguson to weigh in on the case by filing a lawsuit against

Mrs. Stutzman.  He further bypassed the state agency

 charged with enforcing the state's nondiscrimination law. 

In fact, Ferguson seemed to go out of his way to target

 this hard-working 73 year old grandmother for standing up

 for her faith and her belief that marriage is a sacred covenant 

between one man, one woman, and God.

Meanwhile, the gay couple had their wedding and all seemed well

with them-initially they had no interest in suing Mrs. Stutzman-

until a phone call from Ferguson changed their minds and persuaded

them to join forces with the American Civil Liberties Union

and the state of Washington in order to force the floral designer

to choose between her faith and her flower creations.

Kristen Waggoner, Senior Vice President of the U.S. Legal

Division For Alliance Defending Freedom and who is representing

both Barronelle Stutzman and Jack Phillips, had this to say:

"No one should be bullied or banished from the marketplace

for living out her or his beliefs about God and marriage.

It takes a special kind of focused hostility to target this

woman, to relentlessly pursue her business and personal 

 assets all for the purpose of making an example of her.

Yet that's exactly what the state of Washington is doing."

These biased and unfair edicts handed down to

intimidate and to punish Christians for standing up for

their faith are in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution's

 First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech, expression, 

and the free exercise of religious belief granted to all Americans.

Furthermore, state officials encouraging and supporting

the discrimination and persecution of Christians in order

to capitalize on the disgruntled cause of LGBTQ activism,

 are in my opinion, no less evil than Nazi Germany's

 applauding the reprehensible behavior of the Sturmabteilung,

the brown-shirted bully boys who "enforced" Hitler's

anti-discrimination laws against the Jews and fought political

opposition to the Third Reich before and during WWII.

Hitler's Brown Shirts were a group of

violent political operatives whom he used to

terrorize the Jewish people and his political opponents.