Baker Who Refused Gay Couple Says Jesus Would Do The Same
- By
- Carlos Santoscoy
- | July 02, 2017
Appearing Thursday on ABC's The View, Jack Phillips, the Colorado baker who refused to serve a gay couple, said that Jesus would have done the same.
In 2012, Phillips, the owner of Denver-based Masterpiece Cakeshop, refused to consider baking a cake for Dave Mullins and Charlie Craig. The men married in Massachusetts and wanted to buy a cake from Phillips for their Denver reception. Phillips said that serving the couple would violate his religious faith. Colorado at the time recognized gay and lesbian couples with civil unions, not marriage.
The couple sued, saying that Phillips' faith does not give him a right to discriminate, and a Colorado court found that Phillips had discriminated against the men under Colorado law. After the Colorado Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal, Phillips turned to the Supreme Court, arguing that the First Amendment protects his religious rights. The high court will hear his case in the fall.
“I don't believe that Jesus would've made a cake [for the couple] if he had been a baker,” Phillips told the hosts of The View.
“Aw, come on. Jesus would've made the cake,” host Joy Behar said to applause from the audience. “That's a dealbreaker. Jesus is going to make the cake.”
Phillips' attorney, Kristen Waggoner, pushed back, claiming that under the Colorado law Behar could be forced to write a speech in support of the GOP health care bill.
“I don't think it's exactly like that,” Behar replied.
“It is. It's the same law,” said Waggonner, who works for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a Christian conservative group that is vocally opposed to LGBT rights.