Religious Americans' Wedding Bell Blues

I find myself unable to comment on the politics of the week in my typical Saturday blog post because of my presence at my cousin’s wedding.  Going to another wedding makes me sad that I do not get to play the part of groom and glad that I do not have anything to do with the wedding business.  In recent years, the PC police have worked hard to give a series of God-fearing Americans the “Wedding Bell Blues.”  For these Americans, the source of the heartburn does not match up with the “Wedding Bell Blues” experienced by Marilyn McCoo and many millennial females stuck in the status of “partner” just waiting for their significant others to put a ring on it. Instead, these Americans have the case of the “Wedding Bell Blues” because of coercion from the left (and the judicial branch) to participate in events that violate their deeply held religious beliefs.

Colorado baker Jack Phillips operates Masterpiece Cakeshop in a suburb of Denver. He found himself in legal hot water for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding.  He took his case all the way to the Supreme Court and prevailed; with seven of the nine justices arguing that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission demonstrated hostility towards his religious beliefs.  Even with SCOTUS weighing in, the harassment of Phillips did not stop.  With Phillips as a public figure, he has become an even richer target.  A transgender lawyer asked Phillips to make a cake in celebration of a gender transition, with a blue exterior and a pink interior. His refusal to bake the cake brought on another legal challenge. Phillips eventually sued the state to prevent it from enforcing its anti-discrimination laws against him for refusing to bake the cake as well as ordering him to pay punitive damages. While the state dropped its case against Phillips, the transgender lawyer decided to sue in Federal court.  Phillips’s new case could very well come before the Supreme Court in the very near future.

Melissa and Aaron Klein operated “Sweet Cakes by Melissa” in a suburb of Portland, Oregon. Like Phillips, they refused to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding. However, a judge found that the Kleins’ failure to bake the cake violated the Oregon Equality Act.  Keep in mind that the Democrats want to institute the Equality Act on a national level.  Just last month, the Supreme Court ruled that the Oregon Court of Appeals must rehear the case in light of its ruling in the Phillips case, known as Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.  

You Tube personality Julie Borowski once joked that if the PC police can successfully force bakers to bake cakes for same-sex weddings that the bakers might elect to get back at the same-sex couple (and the government) for forcing them to violate their religious beliefs by putting disgusting ingredients in the cake.  That seems unlikely to happen because most Christians and conservatives, unlike liberals, do not have a vengeful bone in their bodies. 

No offense to any of these bakers but I don’t think any bakery can compete with my mom’s signature triple chocolate fudge cake with peanut butter frosting.  Then again, I don’t know if I would want peanut butter breath on my wedding night.  Has anyone ever heard of mint frosting?

While the Kleins and Phillips have at least had some form of backup from the Supreme Court, Barronelle Stutzman, a florist in southeastern Washington, has faced the wrath of the SJW mob for failing to provide flowers for a same-sex wedding.  Shortly after the Supreme Court ruled in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, the Supreme Court granted Stutzman’s writ of certiorari and ordered the Washington Supreme Court to rehear the case in light of its decision.  The Supreme Court of Washington heard the case again but still refused to reverse its decision; ruling unanimously against Stutzman.

While the attacks on the Christians I have mentioned so far feature a refusal to service an actual event, a pizzeria in Indiana had to suffer the wrath of the liberal mob simply for refusing to service a hypothetical event.  As the debate over a religious freedom law in Indiana reached a fever pitch, Memories’ Pizza in the small town of Walkerton dared to come out in favor of the legislation.  In a desperate attempt to trap the Christian-owned business owners in a “gotcha” question, local reporter Alyssa Marino asked them “how they feel” when it comes to the idea of catering a same-sex wedding. Marino, or at the very least, the SJW mob, got their wish when O’Connor responded by saying they “don’t agree with gay marriages and wouldn’t cater them if asked to.” On Twitter, an inquiring mind asked Marino: “how did the owners of Memories Pizza come to express their opinion? Was there a wedding they denied service to?” Marino responded by admitting “they’ve never been asked to cater a same-sex wedding.” 

In spite of the fact that Memories Pizza had never decided against serving anyone ever, the business quickly became the target of the SJW mob.  The shop ultimately had to close for a brief period of time. Fortunately, prominent conservatives like Dana Loesch and Lawrence Jones came to the defense of the small-town pizzeria. A GoFundMe page set up raised nearly $850,000.  The pizza parlor reopened to a large crowd but eventually closed its doors for good a few years later.

While many couples spend a lot of money on their weddings, they might have their costs offset by wedding gifts from family members.  It seems like these same-sex couples have a desire to unload the cost of their weddings onto those who disagree with them; perhaps as part of the effort liberals have embarked on that involves “going house-to-house and shooting the survivors” of the culture war. As Ann Coulter put it, “they seem to seek out Christian businesses to provide floral arrangements and cakes for gay weddings so they can call the cops if the Christians try to pass.”  To paraphrase Rihanna, these liberals act as if these bakers, florists, and photographers are the only ones in the world.  In reality, a multitude of bakers, florists, and photographers exist that would happily provide services for same-sex weddings.

All of this fuss about wedding cakes proves that liberals fail to realize the role of faith.  Liberals seem to see faith as just another extracurricular activity in a person’s life, not that much different from membership in a bowling league.  They expect people to only practice their faith at church the same way people only wear bowling shoes at bowling alleys. However, for Christians, faith forms the basis of every action they decide to take. Faith and a person’s values determine what kind of job a person might decide to take or not take, what kind of person they decide to marry, and, yes, what kinds of business decisions they conduct.  A liberal would not expect a Jewish baker to bake a cake with a swastika on it nor would they expect a gay baker to bake a cake with the Westboro Baptist Church’s signature phrase “God Hates F**s” on it, would they?  The same courtesy should apply to Christians, even though they don’t fit the definition of a “protected class” in most cases.

It bears repeating that the individuals mentioned in this article did not object serving to the people participating in the same-sex wedding, they objected to participating in the same-sex wedding itself.  If a flamboyantly gay person walked into Masterpiece Cakeshop asking for a birthday cake, Phillips would gladly comply. Well, at least he would have. Throughout the intense legal battle, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission ordered the cake shop to “change its company policies, provide ‘comprehensive staff training’ regarding public accommodations discrimination, and provide quarterly reports for the next two years regarding steps it has taken to come into compliance and whether it has turned away any prospective customers.” Rather than comply with these draconian orders, Phillips opted to get out of the wedding cake business altogether; a decision that cost him 40 percent of his business.  If his decision to sacrifice 40 percent of his business due to his commitment to living by the dictates of his faith does not constitute deeply held beliefs, then I do not know what does.

So, it looks like the wedding bell blues for these patriotic Americans will continue for the foreseeable future.  As for the Supreme Court, they probably hoped that their correct, although vague, ruling in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case would settle the issue of religious liberty once and for all. It looks like the Supreme Court’s role in this important debate in the culture war has not come to an end but rather, it has only just begun.

Now that I have finished my second blog for the week, I can focus on the more pressing matters in my personal life, such as what to wear at the wedding tomorrow.  I don’t know for certain whether or not the ceremony will take place inside or outside. With a forecasted high in the mid-80s, an outside ceremony would require me to wear short sleeves.  I have already ruled out a suit and tie since the wedding will not take place in a church.  I have gone tieless at the two non-church weddings I have attended.

As for me, I don’t understand why anyone would want an outside wedding.  After all, the success of an outside wedding depends entirely on the weather.  While it looks like my cousin will have good weather for his wedding tomorrow, Mother Nature does not make guarantees. In accordance with the riskiness of taking a gamble on the weather as well as the dictates of my faith, I plan on having my wedding indoors.  Besides the aforementioned reasons for heaving the wedding indoors, my junior prom experience proved that in my case, pictures taken indoors come out much better.  Prior to actually departing for the prom, we took some pictures at my date’s house.  While she looked fine, I had the sun in my face and I didn’t have sunglasses. (Don’t worry, I’ll definitely wear sunglasses to the wedding tomorrow).  Not surprisingly, the picture did not come out that good:

However, this picture, taken inside at the hotel where the prom took place, came out much, much better:

In both pictures, I cropped out my date’s face just in case she wants to remain anonymous (which she probably does).  She probably would not hate all of the content on my site; if I had to guess, her politics probably matched the color of her dress and my tuxedo: purple, or as she called it, eggplant.  Although our lives have gone in different directions since high school, we still remain friends on Facebook.

Following my senior prom, which took place six years ago, I have not gone out on a date since; although I have tried many times. It probably worked out in the long run that most of my date requests have gone unfulfilled.  Both of my proms took place before I adopted this as my official dating motto:

While I will attend the wedding solo tomorrow, going dateless will give me the opportunity to spend more time catching up with my extended family; who I have not seen since my exciting internship in the Swamp.