Actress Candace Cameron Bure dropped by TheBlaze newsroom on Wednesday to discuss faith, fame — and her on-air clash with "The View" co-host Raven-Symone over the Christian bakers in Oregon who were fined $135,000 for declining to bake a gay wedding cake.
Bure, who said that the debate between her and Symone made for "good television," explained that these sorts of public discussions are essentially "uncharted territory" for her, but that she felt passionate about the issue and had no problem speaking up in defense of the bakers.
"I wanted to be as truthful and honest and speak in love as much as I could, but just be factual about things," Bure, a Christian, told The Church Boys podcast of her defense of Sweetcakes by Melissa's decision not to bake the cake. "And that's really where I was coming from."
She continued, "I wasn't there to debate gay marriage or straight marriage. It was about these bakers and their religious freedoms and the freedom of association."
Listen to Bure defend the bakers, share information about her upcoming book, "Dancing Through Life," and discuss her faith and career below:
As TheBlaze previously reported, Bure said while guest hosting "The View" on Tuesday that she doesn’t think that the bakery's decision not to provide a same-sex wedding cake to a lesbian couple amounts to “discrimination.”
But Symone disagreed, likening it to acts of discrimination that were aimed at African Americans in the past.
“This is about freedom of association, it’s about constitutional rights, it’s about First Amendment rights,” Bure said. “We do have the right to still choose who we associate with.”
In the end, Bure received a great deal of support from gay friends who reached out to her after the segment aired on "The View," letting her know that they respect her opinions.
"My favorite part were all the texts that I got from my ... very close gay friends that were saying, 'We love you and we can all have different opinions, and you fight for what you believe in and I'm going to fight for what I believe in,'" she said.
Bure explained that she and Symone ended up hugging during a commercial break and acknowledged that they simply have different views.
"It's always interesting to hear where everyone's coming from," she said. "We can learn to have respectful conversations with people that we don't agree with."
The actress, who is poised to reprise her role D.J. Tanner on "Fuller House," a continuation of the popular "Full House" series that ran from 1987 to 1995, explained that she believes people can "agree to disagree and still have love and respect for one another."
Actresses Candace Cameron Bure, left, and Jodie Sweeting pose together at the Cool Comedy's Hot Cuisine Benefit for the Scleroderma Research Foundation at the Four Seasons Hotel on Tuesday, April 30, 2013 in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
Bure said that she's not sure that she would have reacted the same way as the Christian bakers, though she defends their right to act in a way that they feel comports with their Christian faith.
In the end, she believes that acting with love and respect is always paramount.
"As Christians, again, we want to love and respect one another," Bure said, encouraging Christians to act in a way that is right for them if and when they find themselves in these tough situations.
Watch the clash between Bure and Symone below:
