A family-owned Christian bakery, under investigation for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple, has been forced to close its doors after a vicious boycott by militant homosexual activists.<\/p>\n
Sweet Cakes By Melissa posted a message on its Facebook page alerting customers that their Gresham, Ore. retail store would be shut down after months of harassment from pro-gay marriage forces.<\/p>\n
\u201cBetter is a poor man who walks in integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways,\u201d read a posting from Proverbs on the bakery\u2019s Facebook page.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a sad day for Christian business owners and it\u2019s a sad day for the First Amendment,\u201d owner Aaron Klein told me. \u201cThe LGBT attacks are the reason we are shutting down the shop. They have killed our business through mob tactics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last January, Aaron and Melissa Klein made national headlines when they refused to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple.<\/p>\n
Klein tells me he has nothing against homosexuals — but because of their religious faith, the family simply cannot take part in gay wedding events.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe marriage is between a man and a woman,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to help somebody celebrate a commitment to a lifetime of sin.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lesbian couple filed a discrimination with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries and told their story to local newspapers and television statements.<\/p>\n
Within days, militant homosexuals groups launched protests and boycotts. Klein told me he received messages threatening to kill his family. They hoped his children would die.<\/p>\n
The LGBT protestors then turned on other wedding vendors around the community. They threatened to boycott any florists, wedding planners or other vendors that did business with Sweet Cakes By Melissa.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat tipped the scales,\u201d Klein said. \u201cThe LGBT activists inundated them with phone calls and threatened them. They would tell our vendors, \u2018If you don\u2019t stop doing business with Sweet Cakes By Melissa, we will shut you down.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
To make matters worse, the Oregon\u2019s Bureau of Labor and Industries announced last month they had launched a formal discrimination investigation against the Christian family.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Brad Avakian told The Oregonian that he was committed to a fair and thorough investigation to determine whether the bakery discriminated against the lesbians.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody is entitled to their own beliefs, but that doesn\u2019t mean that folks have the right to discriminate,\u201d he told the newspaper. \u201cThe goal is to rehabilitate. For those who do violate the law, we want them to learn from that experience and have a good, successful business in Oregon.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
There is but one God and He is the State.\u00a0 In this instance, he has dispatched one of His bureaucratic angels, a Mr Brad Avakian, to teach these “free citizens” that, should they wish the government’s licensing to earn a living (and here you though you had a right to pursue sustenance on your own!), they most use their labor in a way determined by the State.<\/p>\n
Because failure to design and bake wedding cakes for gay and lesbian couples, or make “coming out” cupcakes for people who demand them — given that you don’t recognize same sex marriage or homosexuality as legitimate as part of your faith — is almost like turning dogs and fire hoses on these poor put upon victims of hateful hatred.\u00a0 Because, like, where in the hell else<\/em> is a gay or lesbian couple going to find someone who specializes in high end pastries, what with all the homosexuals who have been unfairly frozen out of, say, the boutique bakery business, or the floral business, or the wedding gown business, etc?<\/p>\nThe libertarian in me says that when you own a business, you should have the right to refuse service based on your beliefs. If those beliefs are noxious to others, the market will eventually close you down.<\/p>\n
Having the state step in to demand you bake cakes for functions that go against your religious beliefs replaces your religious liberty with the State’s demands over your labor and time.<\/p>\n
This only happens in a country that has watched “tolerance” become inverted to mean “government sanctioned and approved beliefs that you must appear to follow.”<\/p>\n
I almost can’t wait for the pendulum to swing back.\u00a0 And I hope it’s one of them Poe-type numbers, too.<\/p>\n
(h\/t Dennis D)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You know your “free” country is headed in a dubious direction when government combines with organized mob identity politics warriors to engage in religious persecution under the phony rationale that, in a supposedly free and market based country, denial of baking services is a civil rights crime, there being but one bakery to choose from, and no takers anywhere ever for gay and lesbian money. Whereas hectoring and boycotting Christian<\/p>\n
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