#FirstAmendmentLoses
An Oregon couple recently found out what the going price is for dissent when “love wins”. Apparently it’s about six figures: $135,000 to be exact, as well as barring them from talking about their case publicly. Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa declined to participate in a same sex “marriage” by supplying a wedding cake to 2 lesbians who had been regular customers, due to their belief in traditional or Biblical marriage.
The couple has until Monday, July 13th to come up with the entire amount or arrange a payment. The Klein’s bakery has since closed (they operate out of their home now), and Aaron took a job as a garbage collector in order to support his family. He stated, “Basically, the state of Oregon is saying we can kick you out of your house and make you homeless. They have no qualms about the fact that they’re doing this to my five kids as well.”
The incident goes back to early 2013 when the lesbian couple, Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer, asked if the Kleins would provide a cake for their upcoming “wedding”. The Kleins refused and supposedly “quoted Leviticus” to them. Instead of just looking for another bakery—surely there were others—the offended ones complained to Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI). They waited several months to make their complaint to the agency which not only investigates human rights and discrimination cases, they also prosecute and judge them.
So here you have, as National Review writer David French says, an organization run by un-elected bureaucrats with little or no in-depth knowledge of the Constitution, deciding Constitutional matters. “In the administrative agencies of the deep state,” says French, “a single, highly ideological entity can function as rule maker, investigator, prosecutor, judge, jury, and enforcer”. French has followed this story at length and the implications it has for future religious liberty and other First Amendment issues across the nation since virtually every state has an agency like BOLI. French has described the close ties BOLI (via its commissioner Brad Avakian) has with pro-LGBT organizations in Oregon. Avakian, who ordered the Kleins to pay the money and not speak publicly, was making public comments about the couple before they ever appeared before him.
Some impartial judge. The Kleins never stood a chance. Avakian seems to be just another political hack with too much power that he plans to use to punish those he sees as enemies. As for the lesbian couple, they claimed that because the Kleins refused to bake their “wedding” cake, they suffered emotional damages that included (but were not limited to): “acute loss of confidence,” “doubt,” “excessive sleep,” “loss of sleep,” “impaired digestion”, “pale and sick at home after work,” “resumption of smoking habit,” “shock,” “stunned,” “surprise,” “uncertainty,” “weight gain” and “worry.”
This reminds me of the atheists who complained that the now-famous Cross at Ground Zero gave them indigestion. Not that I’m comparing lesbians to atheists, it’s just that it seems too easy in our lawsuit-crazed society to bring charges against people with whom you disagree—claiming maladies that are common to most people for any number of reasons. Why did the lesbian couple wait several months after not getting their cake to file their complaint against the Kleins? Could they have been preparing for the media attention that they had to know would come from a case like this? Are they looking to make a huge sum of money? Why do the Kleins have to pay them while they are still appealing BOLI’s decision? What’s going on in Oregon?
This case raises more questions than answers and it won’t be going away anytime soon. Last Wednesday, Aaron Klein, ignoring the gag order, said in an interview with The Blaze Radio, “I think every Christian better get ready for this because with the Supreme Court ruling, we’re going to have issues.” He said they never intended to discriminate against anyone (they had served this couple on previous occasions)—they just wanted to live out their faith.
Where’s the love now? If love had really won on June 26th, the gay community would have gotten to work to mend fences and heal the open wounds with those who disagree with them. Instead, there was more in-your-face, we-won-you-lost-so-get-over-it attitudes expressed throughout social media and elsewhere.
If love had won, the gay community (a very tiny minority of the American population) would have been working to change hearts towards their cause, not forcing acceptance onto the majority by conjuring up phony lawsuits and complaints to get courts and regulatory agencies to do their bidding.
Since when, in America, do we all have to believe everything exactly the same, or risk our livelihoods, financial futures and good names if our beliefs differ from that of the hashtag of the moment?
9-11 Artifact Still Irks Atheists
The Cross at Ground Zero in June 2002
The first time I saw it, I was on a mission trip to New York City in June, 2002—just about 9 and a half months after the terrorist attacks. The Cross at Ground Zero stood on a pedestal with an American flag waving at the base of it. At that time, efforts to recover those who perished had recently been completed. It was, and still is considered to be sacred ground, even as construction continues there to this day.
The two intersecting steel beams where found by construction workers in the rubble in the days following September 11, 2001. The cross became a source of comfort to people of all faiths who worked at the site, as well as to those who have visited for more than a decade.
It’s no surprise of course that atheist organizations have expressed their displeasure with the icon over the years. Most recently, American Atheists has filed a lawsuit that claims, oddly enough, that the cross at Ground Zero is making them sick.
According to WorldNet Daily, the lawsuit, American Atheists v. Port Authority of New York and New Jersey makes the bizarre claim that the plaintiffs “have suffered …. dyspepsia, symptoms of depression, headaches, anxiety, and mental pain and anguish from the knowledge that they are made to feel officially excluded from the ranks of citizens who were directly injured by the 9/11 attack.” They go on to make the suggestion that at the very least, they’d like to have a 17-foot “A for atheists” structure built in order to promote their non-beliefs at Ground Zero.
Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice calls the lawsuit “absurd” and countered by filing a friend- of- the- court brief signed by more than 100,000 people in support of the Ground Zero Cross.
The National September 11 Memorial and Museum has stated that the cross is an “important and essential artifact [that] comprises a key component of the retelling of the story of 9/11” The museum also contends, “We are in the business of telling the story of 9/11 and the victims of 9/11”, and the Cross is part of an exhibit to tell that story. One museum official said, “In the historical exhibition, the cross is part of our commitment to bring back the authentic physical reminders that tell the story of 9/11 in a way nothing else can.”
Even other atheist groups find the lawsuit to be a frivolous waste of time. Susan Jacoby, who writes an atheist blog for The Washington Post, agreed it “misconstrues the First Amendment”.
It’s unlikely American Atheists will get very far with this particular lawsuit, but still they’ll press on, looking for some other thing, somewhere to offend them. In fact, they seem to spend an awful lot of time and energy railing against Someone they say they don’t even believe exists. They’re either the stupidest people on the planet, or there’s something else going on here.
To put it another way, let’s look at unicorns. I don’t believe they exist. Until I just typed that sentence, I haven’t thought about them. I don’t start organizations or give to organizations that try to get other people to believe unicorns don’t exist. I don’t file lawsuits to attempt to remove all unicorns from public display. When I see a picture of one, I don’t claim physical illness or mental distress. They just aren’t on my radar.
Perhaps these atheists are feeling physical symptoms because something deep inside themselves that they can’t control is coming to the surface. The part they deny exists (the spirit) is trying to break free. For an atheist, the Ground Zero Cross may not be causing indigestion so much as it’s causing conviction.
*** UPDATE: 4/1/13: On Friday (Good Friday), March 29, 2013, New York Federal Judge Deborah Batts rejected the atheist group’s arguments and threw this case out. You can read about it here. A victory for common sense and The Cross.
Liberty Belle Blog 