Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips is doubling down on his stance just days after Colorado's Civil Rights Commission upheld a judge's ruling that the baker was wrong to deny a wedding cake to a gay couple.
Phillips told TheBlaze Tuesday that he still has no intention of providing confectionery services for gay and lesbian weddings, maintaining the position he has held since Dave Mullins and Charlie Craig, the gay couple who waged a complaint against him, first approached his bakery in 2012.
"I'm not going to make cakes for same-sex weddings," he said. "That violates my First Amendment speech … and my duty as a Christian abiding by my savior."
[sharequote align="center"]"I'm not going to make cakes for same-sex weddings."[/sharequote]
Phillips said that he stopped taking all wedding cake orders in March, just three months after Judge Robert N. Spencer of the Colorado Office of Administrative Courts ruled against him, finding that he must serve gay couples.
In this March 13, 2014 file photo, Dave Mullins, right, kisses his husband Charlie Craig, on the patio of their home in Westminster, Colo. The couple filed a legal complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission against Denver-area baker Jack Phillips, who refused to make a wedding cake for the two men, citing his religious beliefs. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, file)
As TheBlaze previously reported, Spencer’s order said Phillips must "cease and desist from discriminating" against same-sex couples.
So far the impact on his business has been minimal. Unlike a different bakery that saw business plummet after its owners took the same stance, Phillips said Masterpiece Cakeshop is thriving.
"It's actually increased our business," he said of the controversy surrounding his stance. "Since we were just in the news, it's busier."
For instance, Phillips said he had 65 orders Monday, up from the 25 or 30 the bakery would normally have on the first day of a normal work week.
[sharequote align="center"]"The Bible to me overrules all that and the Bible asks me to be obedient to Christ."[/sharequote]
Phillips also addressed Spencer's December ruling, saying that the judge said he understood the baker's constitutional rights, but said Phillips' refusal to provide a cake didn't qualify as "speech" and that "discrimination charges overrule it." The commission affirmed this stance May 30.
But the baker disagrees.
"The Bible to me overrules all that and the Bible asks me to be obedient to Christ -- and the Bible condemns certain things," Phillips added.
His attorney Nicolle Martin told TheBlaze that she and her client are considering next steps, which could include an appeal.
Martin also offered an illustration to help critics better understand Phillips' stance.
"I would pose this question to the admin law judge or the tribunal -- 'Is this commission prepared to force a pacifist to paint a mural for a disabled U.S. veteran honoring whatever war he or she fought in and is disabled because of?'," she asked. "Are we to force that painter to paint a mural celebrating [war]?"
Phillips added that he has received harassing phone calls and emails from those angry over his views.
In this March 10, 2014 photo, Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips decorates a cake inside his store, in Lakewood, Colo. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
As previously reported, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of Mullins and Craig after Phillips refused to make their wedding cake in July 2012.
“We are all entitled to our religious beliefs and we fight for that. But someone’s personal religious beliefs don’t justify breaking the law by discriminating against others in the public sphere,” Mark Silverstein, who directs the ACLU in Colorado, said in a past interview with the Associated Press.
