One wonders what would have happened if the Sweet Cakes by Melissa case involved not the owners refusing to be coerced to violate their religious conscience by providing a cake not to two same-sex people celebrating their union and calling it a marriage, but rather a Muslim bakery being forced to bake a cake decorated with a cartoon picture of the prophet Muhammad covered with bacon sprinkles.
Would the bakery in that scenario be forced to pay a heavy business-killing fine for actually believing that the Founding Fathers meant freedom of religion when they enshrined it in the First Amendment? Probably not, even if the ruling was made by a liberal Oregon judge who forget that this country was founded by people fleeing religious persecution and governmental war on their religious conscience:
The Oregon Court of Appeals has ruled against Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of the Sweet Cakes by Melissa bakery who in 2013 refused to design and bake a cake celebrating a lesbian couple’s same-sex wedding [sic].
The Kleins felt that designing and making the cake to celebrate the 2013 same-sex wedding [sic] would violate their Christian faith.
On Thursday, however, the appeals court upheld the decision by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries to fine the Kleins $135,000. The hefty financial penalty ultimately forced the couple to close their bakery[.] …
“Freedom of expression for ourselves should require freedom of expression for others. Today, the Oregon Court of Appeals decided that Aaron and Melissa Klein are not entitled to the Constitution’s promises of religious liberty and free speech,” First Liberty CEO Kelly Shackelford stated.
Creative expression in any form is free speech, which, along with freedom of religion, is supposedly protected in the First Amendment. People should not be compelled to write or say things they do not believe or agree with, whether it be in the form of ink on paper or frosting on wedding cakes.
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