LGBT extremist want to force Christians into submission - or jail

Aaron and Melissa Klein are devout Christians who owned a small family bakery in Oregon when in 2013 a same-sex couple sought them out to bake a custom-designed cake for their 'wedding' ceremony. Because they believe in the biblical basis for marriage as the union of one man and one woman, the Kleins respectfully declined to devote their artistic talents to a ceremony that violates their religious beliefs. In an all-too-familiar series of events that followed, the lesbian couple took their hurt feelings to the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries and filed a complaint for "discrimination." What has happened since then is an object lesson in intolerance, bias, and - if we're being honest - serious questions about potential collusion in Oregon's judicial system.

Despite his bias and extensive support for one of the chief accusers of the Kleins, the judge did not remove himself from the case. Instead, he not only rejected the Kleins right to uphold their religious views about marriage, he declared them guilty of discrimination and levied a punishment that is truly mind-boggling:

The Kleins were fined $135,000 for the lesbians' hurt feelings over a wedding cake.

Even worse, the couple had to close their family bakery in response to boycotts and negative press coverage. After the case was decided, the administrative judge who so heavily punished this Christian couple sought election to higher office and the media portrayed him as a champion of Oregon's influential gay community.

For over five long years now, this sad case has made its way through the courts, which tragically have upheld both the discrimination charge and the enormous penalty imposed. Now the Kleins have appealed the case to the Oregon Supreme Court.

We fully support Aaron and Melissa Klein, and urge the state Supreme Court to grant review of this case. If they do, we will urge the Court to reverse the ruling.

We has been involved in critical court cases like this at the state level and before the U.S. Supreme Court. We currently have a critical legal brief under review in the Supreme Court case of Masterpiece Cakeshop v Colorado where, like what has occurred with Aaron and Melissa Klein, a Christian baker was punished for declining to be involved in something that violates his religious beliefs.

We believe it is outrageous that anyone should be forced to participate in a gay 'wedding' that violates their conscience. And yet, time and again that is exactly what is expected. One court even went so far as to declare that abandoning religious beliefs to personally be part of a same-sex ceremony is "the price of citizenship" one must pay. How outrageous!

I hesitate to point out that none of the lesbian or gay couples who have brought complaints against Christian businesses have ever had difficulty in finding other vendors who were more than happy to provide wedding cakes, invitations, flowers and photographs for their ceremonies. Indeed, the lesbian couple in Oregon easily found another baker to create a 'wedding' cake for them.

But having a ready pool of vendors is not the point of the gay rights extremists who champion these cases against Christians. The point is to force Christians into submission, making people give up their beliefs about the truth of marriage and eroding public support for our to restore marriage to our laws.

We commends all those who have fought against this tyranny. We will continue to stand up for those who stand up for the truth of marriage and live out their beliefs at work and in their daily lives. We also will continue to push to restore marriage to our nation's laws.