The Christian-owned bakery that refused to make a cake promoting gay marriage has released a video explaining its position.
As The Inquisitr previously reported , the Ashers Baking Company chain in Northern Ireland now faces a potential lawsuit from the country’s Equality Commission for alleged sexual orientation discrimination.
The controversy started when a customer who reportedly is an LGBT activist ordered a celebration cake from the company’s Belfast store with a gay marriage slogan along with a picture of Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street and the logo of the activist group Queerspace.
In the video (see embed below), soft-spoken General Manager Daniel McArthur explains that the business operates in accordance with “Christian values and beliefs, according to what the Bible teaches. It means for example that we don’t open on Sundays, that we trade openly and honestly with people.”
The order for the gay-themed cake in question was placed on a Friday in May. After due consideration by the company’s directors, “We thought that this order was at odds with our beliefs. It certainly was in contradiction of what the Bible teaches,” said McArthur. The bakery informed the customer the following Monday that it was declining the order and would provide a full refund.
Same-sex marriage is not legal in Northern Ireland although it is elsewhere in the U.K.
According a local official , the cake was ordered to coincide with the International Day Against Homophobia. Another bakery supplied the cake for the event.
Since it appears that there may be about 100 bakeries in Belfast alone, does it not seem like finding an alternative vendor (as was done in this instance) would be the most effective way to handle a situation of this nature without getting lawyers and politicians involved?
Ashers, a family owned business which operates six stores in Northern Island and has about 60 employees, will be receiving legal help from the Christian Institute. An official with that organization said that “No one should be forced to use their creative skills to promote a cause which goes against their consciences.”
Watch the Ashers Baking Company video and draw your own conclusions
In Colorado, a bakery owned by a devout Christian who doesn’t believe in gay marriage no longer makes cakes for any weddings, straight or gay. The state’s Civil Rights Commission told the Denver-area Masterpiece Cakeshop that it couldn’t legaly refuse service to a customer based on sexual orientation after the owner refused to sell a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding ceremony.
Is it a violation or vindication of equal rights for a business such as Ashers Bakery — or Hobby Lobby on this side of the Atlantic — to be allowed to follow its religious principles in how it runs its business on a day-to-day basis without government interference?