In an apparent repeat of the trials that befell Oregon bakers Aaron and Melissa Klein, another Christian baker—this time from Colorado—is in hot water for the same reason that the Kleins found themselves in: refusal to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding.
Colorado's Court of Appeals ruled that Christian baker Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado, violated the state's anti-discrimination act by refusing to bake a wedding cake ordered by a same-sex couple.
The appeals court ruled in favour of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission's decision finding Phillips in violation of the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA), when he refused to bake a wedding cake for couple Charlie Craig and David Mullins in July 2012.
"CADA prohibits places of public accommodations from basing their refusal to serve customers on their sexual orientation, and Masterpiece violated Colorado's public accommodations law by refusing to create a wedding cake for Craig's and Mullins' same-sex wedding celebration," the appeals court ruled, according to Fox News.
The couple visited Masterpiece Cakeshop in July 2012 and requested Phillips to create a cake to celebrate their same-sex wedding. He refused, telling them that he does not create wedding cakes for same-sex weddings because of his religious beliefs. However, he told Craig and Mullins that he would be happy to make and sell them any other baked goods, according to the court ruling.
Craig and Mullins sued Phillips for discrimination in a place of public accommodation.
Phillips, a Christian for 35 years, told the court that making a cake for the couple would violate his religious beliefs.
However, the court noted that "by selling a wedding cake to a same-sex couple, Masterpiece does not necessarily lead an observer to conclude that the bakery supports its customer's conduct."
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which represented Phillips, said the baker "only exercised his long-cherished American freedom to decline to use his artistic talents to promote a message with which he disagrees."
"Government has a duty to protect people's freedom to follow their beliefs personally and professionally rather than force them to adopt the government's views," said ADF lawyer Jeremy Tedesco.
Phillips told Fox News that "the court's ruling is not fair."
"It shows that some people have more equal rights than others. When you're not in line with the same-sex agenda, you don't have as much equal rights," he said.
The judge in the discrimination case ordered Phillips to hold a comprehensive staff training that includes his mother and change the company's policies to comply with CADA. The judge also ordered him to file quarterly compliance reports for two years with the division to describe the remedial measures taken by his bakery.
"My mom is on my staff and she said she will not be retrained," he said. "And I'm not going to make same-sex wedding cakes," Phillips vowed.
He stopped making wedding cakes last year. He said he feels that Christians are under attack because of the same-sex marriage ruling made by the Supreme Court recently.
"I would like that to be my choice and not the government telling me which ones I can do and which ones I can't. A lot of Christians are under attack – bakers and florists, wedding chapels," he said.
Phillips said his faith will not waiver.
"I'm a man who is devoted to following Jesus Christ. He's the one that's in charge of all this," he said.
"It's not up to the courts to decide what marriage is. It's up to God to decide that. If we are living in obedience to Jesus Christ and the teachings of the Bible we are on the right side of history—no matter what they say," he said.
