GAY TRUTH

A brief note about two decisions illustrating radically different approaches to religious freedom developing in the context of laws prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination, both from the United States . One case, Re Klein dba Sweetcakes by Melissa and anor ( Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries, State of Oregon ; Case Nos 44-14, 45-14; 21 April 2015) is in the “genre” of the wedding industry cases I have previously commented on. The owners of a small-town cake shop were asked to make a wedding cake . When they discovered that this was for a same sex “commitment ceremony” (at the time same sex marriage was not legal in Oregon), they declined on the grounds of their Christian beliefs. Soon word got around, they were besieged by protests and in fact had to shut down their shopfront business. In this decision the Commissioner has ruled, on the basis of a previous finding of liability for sexual orientation discrimination, that they should pay $135,000 in damages...

Should a Jewish person be forced to serve a Nazi soldier? In the USA they might be forced or jailed.  The Supreme Court is due to consider the case of Jack Phillips , who says his refusal to bake for same-sex weddings is protected by the First Amendment The USA Supreme Court will hear in its term beginning October 2nd is the Masterpiece Cakeshop v Colorado Civil Rights Division, Charlie Craig , and David Mullins . It’s not every day that the justices hear a conflict between a sweets purveyor and both a gay couple and a government agency charged with policing discrimination. But the clash was inevitable.  In Obergefell v Hodges , Justice Anthony Kennedy inserted a caveat into his immoral opinion opening marriage laws nationwide to gays and lesbians. These judges took it upon themselves that they had the right to redefine marriage. A small group of un-elected individuals with no authority regarding the foundation and purpose of marriage chose to allow homosexuals...

Gay Couple as Cowboys on the Gay Pride 2005 in Sao Paulo, Brazil (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a major religious liberties case involving Jack Phillips, a Christian baker in Colorado who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple citing his religious beliefs . The apex court’s decision could change the way business owners treat same-sex couples based on their personal faith. The case, "Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission ," started in 2012 when the bakery owner Phillips declined to make a cake for a homosexual couple citing his own religious beliefs. The couple, Charlie Craig and David Mullins , filed a discrimination lawsuit in Colorado state courts against the baker and they won. Phillips' refusal violated a Colorado  anti-discrimination law , the couple stated. However, Phillips argued the law violated his freedom of speech, expression and free exercise of religion , under the  Fi...

A professor ousted by Jesuit -run Marquette University for supporting free speech and academic freedom has promised to appeal a court decision that backed the firing. Dr. John McAdams was suspended in 2014 and fired the next year when he refused to apologize for using his  blog  to expose a graduate student/instructor who wouldn’t allow criticism of same-sex “marriage” in her class. McAdams sued on the grounds the disciplinary process was biased. This week, Judge David Hansher ruled in favor of Marquette. “This is another example of the increasing unwillingness of colleges to stand up for free speech,” commented Dr. McAdams. “Hardly a day passes without an example of a speaker being shouted down, or disinvited, or a student being punished for some innocuous (but politically incorrect) comment on social media.” According to the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, which supported Dr. McAdams, he plans to appeal. A tenured political science professor whose ...

I remember when I first heard  Chuck Colson, on a BreakPoint commentary years ago, make a distinction  between religious liberty and freedom of worship. "Freedom of worship," a phrase being used more and more Chuck warned, is the freedom to believe what you want in the privacy of your own mind, and maybe inside the doors of your house of worship. But what the founders had in mind was much more robust—the freedom to carry our deeply held beliefs into the public square and allow them to shape our lives. As I admitted to him later, I thought Chuck was making much ado about nothing with that distinction. But as we’ve clearly seen in how the government has argued for the HHS Mandate and the way the courts have ruled against wedding-related business owners, Chuck was absolutely right. This week’s incident, however, threatens even that neutered, watered-down version of freedom of worship. As we talked about yesterday on BreakPoint, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal vetoed ...

English: Marco Rubio, U.S. Senator from Florida, Former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives Français : Marco Rubio, homme politique républicain de Floride (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Surging GOP presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio , R-FL, says that " God's law " trumps the U.S. Supreme Court ’s Obergefell decision imposing same-sex “marriage” nationwide. The senator also told Christian Broadcast Network's David Brody that the Supreme Court's redefinition of marriage is not "settled," but instead "current law." “No law is settled,” said Rubio. “Roe v. Wade is current law, but it doesn’t mean that we don’t continue to aspire to fix it, because we think it’s wrong.” “If you live in a society where the government creates an avenue and a way for you to peacefully change the law, then you’re called to participate in that process to try to change it,” he explained, and "the proper place for that to be defined is at th...

The Rev. Scott Lively runs a Bible study four mornings a week at Holy Grounds Coffee House in Springfield, Mass. His Abiding Truth Ministries provides meals and movies for the homeless and hosts about 45 people at Sunday services. But outside of Springfield, Lively is not universally loved. The 58-year-old Pentecostal pastor, husband and father of four is accused of persecuting LGBT people abroad, a crime against humanity under international law. A lawsuit by Sexual Minorities Uganda , an LGBT advocacy group, alleges that Lively has conspired with Ugandan religious and political leaders since 2002 to strip gays of their rights in that country which has resulted in housing and employment discrimination, arrest, torture and the murder of gays and lesbians. The case, filed in 2012, is expected to go to trial early next year in a U.S. district court in Massachusetts. If convicted, Lively could face a fine. "He's very clear that you have to silence LGBT people and eradica...

Taking the admonishment of legal scholars to heart that the Supreme Court's marriage ruling in   Obergefell   is illegitimate, several Alabama probate judges   have petitioned the state Supreme Court for a judgement   upholding the state constitution and prohibiting the state from issuing same-sex 'marriage' licenses. The judges acknowledge that the state must "recognize" same-sex 'marriage' licenses issued elsewhere that are valid under the laws of other states, but that the federal government is powerless to force the state to itself issue licenses that violate its state constitution. Saying that the   Obergefell   ruling was "born from a strained interpretation of the US Constitution, the new same-sex marriage license is a child of the federal government, not the State of Alabama...Therefore, the recognition of same-sex marriage as a civil right under the United States Constitution vests the U.S. Congress with the authority and responsibi...

A federal judge on Wednesday weighed the merits of a nationally watched discrimination lawsuit involving Atlanta's former fire chief, who was fired for handing out at work 20 copies of a book he wrote that is critical of homosexuality. City officials are seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Kelvin Cochran in a case that sparked outrage among some conservative groups advocating for religious freedom . In the 2013 book, "Who Told You That You Were Naked?", Cochran called homosexuality "vulgar" and "the opposite of purity." He was fired early this year after employees complained to city council members about the book's content, Atlanta city attorney Robert N. Godfrey said. "The city of Atlanta has a policy of non-discrimination ," Godfrey said in court. "This book runs completely afoul of those principles." U.S. District Court Judge Leigh May said during Wednesday's hearing that there had not yet been time for dep...

There has perhaps never been a media outlet more of a mouthpiece for the far-left 's assault on American values than the New York Times . They have championed the sexual revolution , cheered the abortion industry responsible for the death of over 55 million unborn Americans, and led the push for gay 'marriage.' The First Amendment protects their right to publish whatever they wish. But as is so often the case with the far-left, they wish to deny the protections of the First Amendment to those of us who support traditional marriage and who wish to prevent the government from discriminating against us. In the twisted logic of the New York Times, the constitution exists to protect their views but does not protect our rights . In fact, just as they advocated that marriage be redefined, they would like to redefine the First Amendment to neuter its guarantee of religious liberty . The reason they wish to do this is because they hate the idea that people still support tr...