OPINION:
The Supreme Court’s decision in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case Monday is being celebrated, condemned and/or downplayed by various interest groups and legal analysts across the nation depending on what broader political agenda they may wish to promote. But in the end, this case was about one man, Jack Phillips, and how the government treated him because he wished to follow his conscience as an artist and as a Christian.
The government in the state of Colorado attempted to destroy Mr. Phillips’ life and came pretty close to succeeding.
“The government’s hostility toward my beliefs has spread through pockets of my community,” Phillips wrote in the Washington Post in April. “My life and the lives of my family have been threatened repeatedly. Last year, one man swore that he’d shoot me in the head, and another threatened to kill me with a machete — all for declining to create a wedding cake. The threats and harassment have been so bad at times that my wife has been too afraid to set foot in our shop.”
All this because Phillips, an artist, refused to create his art at the heavy-handed demand of the government.
In a hearing concerning the case, a Coloardo State Commission compared Phillips refusal to bake the wedding cake with Nazi’s murdering millions of Jews in the holocaust.
“I would also like to reiterate what we said in…the last meeting [concerning Jack Phillips]. Freedom of religion and religion has been used to justify all kinds of discrimination throughout history, whether it be slavery, whether it be the Holocaust… I mean, we can list hundreds of situations where freedom of religion has been used to justify discrimination. And to me it is one of the most despicable pieces of rhetoric that people can use – to use their religion to hurt others.”
An artist refusing to create for a cause he did not believe in was compared to Hitler by the American government. Let that sink in.
Michael Farris, CEO of Alliance Defending Freedom, says Phillips’ business was severely harmed by the way the government handled the case.
“His business has been really hurt, substantially,” Farris told me Monday on WMAL radio in Washington. “He had, I think, a dozen employees, he’s down to four or five. Wedding cakes were 40% his business, he couldn’t do it anymore. The state of Colorado ordered him to stop making wedding cakes if he wouldn’t do same sex cakes. And so he’s suffered greatly financially and he had death threats and all other kinds of threats against his family, a lot, a lot of vicious attacks and so Jack’s very relieved to have won today. He understands that people are still going to be vicious toward him and people who believe in him need to go to his shop and buy stuff and send notes of congratulations for standing up for freedom for everybody.”
And yet, actors, comedians and artists from across the entertainment world are siding with the governments’ right to compel a fellow artist to violate their conscience in the practice of their craft.
Big Hollywood names like Seth MacFarlane and Judd Apatow took to Twitter to condemn the decision.
— Seth MacFarlane (@SethMacFarlane) June 4, 2018
The Supreme Court has approved of hate. We all need to register to vote!!!! @RockTheVote @letamericavote @RepresentDotUs https://t.co/bYElBUM5mV
— Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) June 4, 2018
This, just days after Samantha Bee was defended on First Amendment grounds for using the term “c***” on cable television in describing White House adviser Ivanka Trump.
It’s a dark day for freedom when an artist sides with the heavy hand of government control in a First Amendment case like this. But, it appears, in Hollywood allegiance to the agenda of powerful gay executives is much more important than artistic freedom. Stunning.
While Monday’s decision has been described as legally narrow, if the decision had gone the other way, the resulting effect on religious freedom would have been devastating.
“Any form of a victory today took us back from the abyss of just the most horrible incursions into free speech and freedom of religion that we can imagine,” Farris said.
“It would be hard to say that America is a free country anymore if they can force a man out of business, simply because he wants to follow his conscience on what kind of cakes he’s creating.”
Amen.
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