The owners of a mom and pop bakery have just learned there is a significant price to pay for following their religious beliefs.
Aaron and Melissa Klein, the owners of Sweet Cakes By Melissa, have been ordered to pay $135,000 in damages to a lesbian couple after they refused to bake them a wedding cake in 2013.
The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industry (BOLI) awarded $60,000 to Laurel Bowman-Cryer and $75,000 in damages to Rachel Bowman-Cryer for “emotional suffering.”
“This case is not about a wedding cake or a marriage,” the final order read. “It is about a business’s refusal to serve someone because of their sexual orientation. Under Oregon law, that is illegal.”
According to the BOLI, the lesbian couple suffered great angst. One of the women “felt depressed and questioned whether there was something inherently wrong with the sexual orientation she was born with.” They said she had “difficulty controlling her emotions and cried a lot.”
The other woman “experienced extreme anger, outrage, embarrassment, exhaustion, frustration, intense sorrow and shame” simply because the Kleins refused to provide them with a wedding cake.
Jeez. That must have been one heck of a cake.
It sounds as if the state of Oregon is sending a stern warning to Christian business owners like the Kleins.
“Within Oregon’s public accommodations law is the basic principle of human decency that every person, regardless of their sexual orientation, has the freedom to fully participate in society,” the ruling states. “The ability to enter public places, to shop and dine, to move about unfettered by bigotry.”
Does The Bureau of Labor and Industry truly believe that Christians who want to follow the teachings of their faith are bigots?
It certainly seems to me the only entity guilty of unfettered bigotry is the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industry.
Since the day they turned away the lesbian couple’s business, the Kleins have suffered greatly. Their business was subjected to boycotts and pickets. LGBT activists and their supporters threatened any wedding vendor that did business with Sweet Cakes By Melissa.
Mrs. Klein told me her five children were subjected to death threats -- death threats for simply refusing to participate in a same-sex wedding. That doesn’t sound very tolerant to me.
Eventually, the bullying became so severe the family had to shut down their retail store and Mr. Klein had to take a job picking up garbage. Today, Mrs. Klein continues to make cakes in her home.
“We were just running our business the best we could – following the Lord’s example,” she said. “I’m just blown away by the ruling. They are punishing us for not participating in the wedding.”
Mr. Klein said he plans on appealing the ruling and had harsh words for BOLI Commissioner Brad Avakian.
“This man has no power over me,” Klein said. “He seems to think he can tell me to be quiet. That doesn’t sit well with me and I refuse to comply.”
Mr. Klein accused the BOLI of ordering him to not speak publicly about the case – an order he said is unconstitutional.
“When my constitutional freedoms have been violated by the state I’m going to speak out,” he said. “That’s the way it is.”
Regardless, the Klein case has demonstrated once again that gay rights trump religious liberty. Other Christian business owners should pay close attention.
The Kleins had a choice. They could obey the government or they could obey God. They chose God – and now they must pay the price.
With wooden crosses around their necks and others tattooed on their arms, several dozen Iraqi Christians are training to recapture their homes overrun by the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group.
A year ago, ISIS launched a fierce offensive in northern Iraq, quickly capturing second city Mosul, with its large Christian minority, and Christian-populated areas in the surrounding Nineveh province.
Residents were given the choice of converting to Islam, paying a tax to continue practicing their faith, or death.
Thousands fled, but some want to fight back, and are now training at a military base near the Baghdad airport.
They have Shi'ite Muslim fighters instructing them on how to use their Kalashnikov assault rifles and on the basics of combat maneuvers, but they are vocal in their Christianity on parade, chanting "Ya Mariam (O Mary)" in cadence as they march in a salute to the mother of Jesus.
"We heard that the Christians had an opportunity for jihad (holy war), and we all came and volunteered," said 17-year-old Chaldean Christian Frank Samir.
"Our children are dying; our Christian families were displaced. How do we ourselves accept that people say the Christians are not fighting? On the contrary, we want to fight everywhere," he said.
Samir is from Baghdad, but most of the Christians in the "Ketaeb Babylon" unit are from Mosul.
The ISIS assault was the latest in a long series of disasters for Iraqi Christians, who have repeatedly been attacked by jihadists since the 2003 overthrow of dictator Saddam Hussein, pushing hundreds of thousands to flee abroad.
Invited by Europe 1 on Monday morning, the Rector of the Paris Mosque and President of the French Council of the Muslim Faith Dalil Boubaker was quizzed by veteran journalist Jean-Pierre Elkabach about his proposal to recover “empty churches” to serve the Muslim faith. Boubaker smiled coyly, but Elkabach bluntly called on him to be as candid as possible since this is why he was there anyway. He had been invited to discuss his suggestion made in a soon-to-be released “Open Letter to the French.”
According to him, the 2,500 mosques and 300 under construction were “insufficient”. He hoped that the construction of 2,500 new ones would be discussed at the “forum for dialogue” held that same day. For the demand for more mosques was ever growing.
Boubakeur recalled that France included 7 Million Muslims in 2015, and Europe 20 Millions. They would become 45 Million in 2025, so Europe had to gear up to cater to them.
Reactions to this bombshell announcement were a mixed bag, but leaning on outrage. A few atheists couldn’t care less – a church was nothing more to them than walls with a roof.
One comment by a Muslim was that it was Christians’ fault if their churches fell vacant. It was up to them to fill them if they wanted to keep them.
The response came that it would be better for Christians to destroy rather than cede their empty churches, because once consecrated, churches contained Christ’s living presence. Islam did not have anything similar to the Eucharist in its theoogy, all its followers needed for worship was a rug in the corner of a room, any room. Hence, the conversion proposal was felt to be unjustified – a provocation.
So is it the beginning of the end of secularism in France? Not quite yet. But the French may be starting to realize that their much vaunted secularism is not the neutral space it purported to be. The rise of France’s Muslim population and the multiplication of its special requests (ability to pray every few hours and to have halal food in canteens and enterprises, to count on revised history curriculae, to wear head scarves or full-faced veil, to have women-only swimming pools, to avoid airport security checks, etc, etc) mean ever more accommodations to France’s precious principle of ‘laicité’, and is instituting a de facto two-speed implementation regime. How will it all end? Not well, if one is to believe alarmist scenarios such as Eric Zemmour’s “Le Suicide français” (The French Suicide’) or Michel Houellebecq’s “Soumission” (Submission), with its portrayal of 2022 France as an Islamic Republic. Unless some creative solution is found. Fast.
On Christmas morning, Nanna Skovmand and her boyfriend were subjected to an unprovoked attack by Muslims who kicked and beat them with bottles and iron chains in the face. As has happened so often before, the sentence they have received is ridiculously short. The attackers are already out of prison as you read this – six months after their attack.
The three teenage boys who on Christmas Eve last year attacked the 23-year-old Nanna Skovmand and her boyfriend with chains, punches and kicks in Vesterbro received their sentences. …
None of the three convicted have to stay any longer in prison, as only two months were made unconditional, which all three have already served after their arrest.
The 16-year-old boy was also sentenced to a suspended deportation from Denmark, as he is of Moroccan nationality.
Last January, a Muslim convert to Christianity was arrested in Fez on grounds that he was proselytizing to Muslims. The apostate was approached by two police officers while in the city’s train station. They asked him questions while searching his bag, where they found a Bible and other Christianity-related books. Suspected of proselytizing, the man was taken to the police station for interrogation. For 11 hours until he was finally released, the Christian was questioned about his beliefs, his movements, and the organization that would pay for his travels.
According to Article 220 of the Moroccan Penal Code, a proselytizer may face “six months to three years prison and a fine of 100 to 500 Dirhams” for using the “means of seduction in order to convert” a Muslim “to another religion, either by exploiting his/her weakness or his/her needs, or using for these purposes education, health, asylums and orphanage institutions.”
Nissar Hussain, a former Muslim from Pakistan who converted to Christianity in 1996, recently wrote a letter to his local MP recounting some of the violence, abuse, and other attacks that he and his wife and their six children have suffered at the hands of Muslims in the Bradford area where they live. Written to his MP—a Muslim, who did not respond—the letter follows:
Can I congratulate you on behalf of myself and family on your stunning victory and we can’t express our delight as our newly elected MP for the Ward of Manningham and wish you every success for the future. On a serious note can I express our utter misery and dire situation as Christian converts from a Mirpuri/Muslim background since 1996 [Mirpuri is a region in Pakistan].
We were forced out of our previous home after over several years of suffering as converts and in short my family and I endured ‘hell’ by my fellow Pakistani young men in the form of persecution which entailed assault, daily intimidation, criminal damage to property: smashing house windows and also 3 vehicles written off whilst the community looked on and even endorsed this. One of vehicles was torched outside my home. Despite witnessing another vehicle being rammed deliberately by a man who I knew, the Police did not even take a statement never mind an arrest. Finally after being threatened to be burnt out of my home these young men deliberately set the neighbours’ house (which was vacant) on fire in the hopes that our house would catch fire. When I had reported it to Police prior to this happening the Police sergeant’s response was: “Stop trying to be a crusader and move out!” In short the Police had wilfully failed us so as not to be labelled racists or seem to cause the Muslim community offence at our suffering and expense.
After being forced to move out in June 2006 we settled in St Paul’s Rd and set about rebuilding our lives, which was going well and had no issues and forged good relations with neighbours until we contributed in a Dispatches documentary called ‘Unholy War’ highlighting the plight of converts from Islam to Christianity in September 2008. Then our problems began, largely posed by the A. family who have been engaged on a campaign to drive us out our home given their bigoted attitude and thoroughly unscrupulous conduct and since last July they have embarked upon criminal damage to my vehicle to the point I have now had my vehicle windscreens smashed for the fourth occasion. The most recent incident occurred on 24 April when I had my vehicle smashed in the early hours of the morning and cannot express the financial impact also as I have to wait 3 weeks at a time for the glass to be ordered from the States as my vehicle is American. And again as in our previous experience the Pakistani community has looked on at our suffering and turned a blind eye whilst others have been openly hostile, while they enjoy freedom and liberty religious or otherwise whilst imposing their will rule and reign upon us and we are treated as second class citizens.
As a result of the latest criminal damage, and after weeks of having no car until it was repaired, I took the liberty of parking my vehicle away from outside my home for peace of mind, as given the misery over the last several years I have been diagnosed with PTSD and my wife and family also suffer stress and anxiety. When I went this morning to get my car I was mortified to discover that my car has been smashed deliberately yet again. Clearly we cannot go on living like this; … our lives have been sabotaged, we fear for our safety and suffer anxiety daily, not to mention the financial costs to all of this wanton criminal damage.
I cannot express in words the Police failure over the years which has led to our suffering and have no confidence in them whatsoever and am desperate for your help.
Articles: Momma Would Have Been Outraged
Finally Christians are waking up; expressing righteous anger and outrage over Leftists aggressively targeting and economically slaughtering Christians.
And yet, Leftists defend Muslims to the hilt while attacking Christians at every turn. While Leftists do hate moral standards, their hatred for Christians is deeper, rooted in their disdain for Jesus; a spirit of anti-Christ.
Why do Leftists only target Christian businesses to be forced to service homosexual weddings while ignoring Muslim businesses?
Why are Leftists calling for the Bible to be banned for “hate-speech” while honoring the Quran which calls for the killing of infidels?
Ask yourself, why is the Left outraged when a Christian pastor suggests that a heterosexual couple living together get married? They argue that marriage is just a piece of paper and quote the bogus stat that 50% of marriages end in divorce and so on. And yet, these same anti-heterosexual-marriage zealots think it is wonderful when homosexuals marry. The answer is the Lefts' real objective is to bring down Christianity which equals Jesus.
SCOTUS (five lawyers) furthered the Lefts' cause by, in essence, making the homosexual rainbow symbol a mark of the beast. Any business not displaying it over its doorway will be forced to close, its owners punished and even imprisoned. Think I am exaggerating? Christian chapel owners were threatened with jail time for refusing to marry homosexuals.
The Left will not rest until Christians are terrified to express no other public opinion of homosexuality other than it is loving, wholesome and good – forcing Christians to bow in worship of the Left's false god, betraying the Bible and dethroning Jesus. This is their end game.
Articles: Momma Would Have Been Outraged
Finally Christians are waking up; expressing righteous anger and outrage over Leftists aggressively targeting and economically slaughtering Christians.
Youths have also been duped into believing the lie that 30% (almost a third) of the country is homosexual. The CDC reports them at around 2%. Youths tend to be idealistic and fair. It is understandable that they would conclude that if a third of the population is gay, it’s only fair to grant them the civil right to marry.
The undeniable truth is the whole same-sex marriage thing is really about poking a finger in the eye of Christianity which is centered around Jesus. Domestic partner rights are available to homosexuals. So homosexuals getting married has little to do with financial issues or hospital visitation rights.
Leftists have a problem with Jesus; not with Muhammad, Islam or other religions. Some say Leftists hate Christianity because they are repulsed by moral standards. However, Islam suppresses women and Islamists execute homosexuals and non-believers. And yet, Leftists defend Muslims to the hilt while attacking Christians at every turn. While Leftists do hate moral standards, their hatred for Christians is deeper, rooted in their disdain for Jesus; a spirit of anti-Christ.
Why do Leftists only target Christian businesses to be forced to service homosexual weddings while ignoring Muslim businesses?
Why are Leftists calling for the Bible to be banned for “hate-speech” while honoring the Quran which calls for the killing of infidels?
Ask yourself, why is the Left outraged when a Christian pastor suggests that a heterosexual couple living together get married? They argue that marriage is just a piece of paper and quote the bogus stat that 50% of marriages end in divorce and so on. And yet, these same anti-heterosexual-marriage zealots think it is wonderful when homosexuals marry. The answer is the Lefts' real objective is to bring down Christianity which equals Jesus.
SCOTUS (five lawyers) furthered the Lefts' cause by, in essence, making the homosexual rainbow symbol a mark of the beast. Any business not displaying it over its doorway will be forced to close, its owners punished and even imprisoned. Think I am exaggerating? Christian chapel owners were threatened with jail time for refusing to marry homosexuals.
The Left will not rest until Christians are terrified to express no other public opinion of homosexuality other than it is loving, wholesome and good – forcing Christians to bow in worship of the Left's false god, betraying the Bible and dethroning Jesus. This is their end game.
And yet, both sides caution Conservatives/Christians to respond with timidity; manipulated by the Left's claim that pushing back against their agenda from Obama's fundamental transformation to teaching our kids that tasting homosexuality is like tasting broccoli for the first time – is hate speech, intolerant and unchristian. Ridiculous.
“The only thing needed for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke
SCOTUS fallout: Let the lawsuits begin
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit against a Kentucky clerk for refusing to give wedding licenses to four couples, two of whom are “gay.”
Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis said her religious beliefs barred her from complying with the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that requires states to marry homosexuals. And instead of discriminating, she decided to stop issuing licenses altogether – for homosexuals and heterosexuals, Fox News reported.
Some clerks in the state failed to immediately comply, but then changed their minds. Davis, however, said she couldn’t, and wouldn’t ever, issue a “gay marriage” license.
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit against a Kentucky clerk for refusing to give wedding licenses to four couples, two of whom are “gay.”
Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis said her religious beliefs barred her from complying with the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that requires states to marry homosexuals. And instead of discriminating, she decided to stop issuing licenses altogether – for homosexuals and heterosexuals, Fox News reported.
Davis is hardly alone.
A clerk in Decatur County, Tennessee, resigned her post, along with two office assistants, because of their opposition to the high court’s ruling and their worries about lawsuits if they stood strong on their religious beliefs.
And in New Orleans, the state Office of Vital Records hesitated on issuing same-sex “marriage” licenses until late this week, the Associated Press reported.
Kentucky’s highest-ranking officials – Gov. Steve Beshear and Attorney General Jack Conway – warned clerks on Friday, right after the court’s decision made the media waves, to comply or risk criminal charges that could bring up to a year in jail.Some clerks in the state failed to immediately comply, but then changed their minds. Davis, however, said she couldn’t, and wouldn’t ever, issue a “gay marriage” license.
“It’s a deep-rooted conviction. My conscience won’t allow me to do that,” she said, Fox News reported. “It goes against everything I hold dear, everything sacred in my life.”
ACLU filed it s suit in U.S. District Court in Ashland, requesting an injunction that would compel Davis to start issuing licenses and punitive damages for allegedly violating the rights newly created by the Supreme Court.
In court documents, ACLU legal director William Sharp said Davis’ religious beliefs are “not a compelling, important or legitimate government interest.”
2 comments:
So now the polygamists want the right to marry as many people as they want. That's what happens when politicians and judges think they know more about marriage than Almighty God. Next we'll be hearing about people suing so they could marry their dogs and cats. What's this world coming to? Come quickly Lord Jesus!
Yep - all so predictable...painfully so
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