Last week, news broke of a bakery in Denver, Colorado, that was hit with a discrimination complaint for refusing to bake a Bible-shaped cake with an obscene, anti-gay message on it. Now the man who filed that complaint has been identified, and he has given his side of the story — sort of, KDVR (Denver) is reporting .
As reported by the Inquisitr , in March 2014, an “older, professional-looking” man came into the Azucar Bakery in Denver, Colorado, and picked out a Bible-shaped cake. He then gave a slip of paper to the pastry chef with the words he wanted written on the cake: an anti-gay message with an obscene word.
“He wanted us to write God hates … [Ms. Jones refuses to say the word]. Just really radical stuff against gays.”
Bakery owner Marjorie Silva refused to print the message on the cake. She did, however, attempt to compromise with the then-unidentified customer by offering to sell him his own decorating bag and tip so he could write the message himself. The customer refused to compromise, and ultimately filed a religious discrimination complaint with Colorado’s Colorado’s Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA).
KUSA (Denver) now reports that the man who filed the religious discrimination complaint against the Denver bakery is Bill Jack, a founder of Worldview Academy , a Christian ministry.
Contacted by KUSA, Mr. Jack refused to say much about his decision to file the complaint against the Denver bakery. He did, however, offer a prepared statement.
“I believe I was discriminated against by the bakery based on my creed. As a result, I filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights division. Out of respect for the process, I will wait for the director to release his findings before making further comments.”
Azucar Bakery has found an unlikely ally in the fight over the anti-gay cake complaint: KDVR reports that, after learning about the story, Colorado Republican legislator Gordon Klingenschmitt — a former Navy chaplain who has publicly professed that he believes President Barack Obama may be “possessed by demons” — contact the station to say that he has taken the baker’s side in this dispute.
“I agree with [the baker]. I stand by what she’s doing here.”
In fact, Klingenschmitt is sponsoring legislation that would protect bakers such as Ms. Silva in the future. It should be noted, however, that the legislation he’s sponsoring would also prohibit, say, Christian bakers from being sued for refusing make gay wedding cakes.
“The government should not be able to compel bakers to print things that they disagree with… [Coloardo’s anti-discrimination laws] have no religious or free speech exemptions. So right now there’s a loophole that’s allowing these bakers to be brought up on charges of discrimination. I think the loophole ought to be fixed so that every baker, every artist, every person in Colorado is not compelled by the government to produce anything they personally disagree with.”
DORA is not expected to release its findings on the Denver bakery discrimination suit for at least two months.
[Images courtesy of: PRI , Worldview Academy ]