How do We Solve This?

Of course the easy answer to this is to just bake the cake or to just find a different bakery, but I need to go into more depth due to the nature of this assignment. While this process has been very difficult, it could have indeed been solved very easily, I usually have sided with the baker but for this entry I’ll go into more depth of each side. If Jack Phillips did just make the cake, that would have prevented the whole case but he would have betrayed his religious values, which according to him, could make him a sinner. However, he could have just thought of it as any wedding cake if he really needed to.

On the other hand, had the couple known that it was a religious bakery (it could or could not have been mentioned in the front) they could have put those thoughts in mind, which seems a little messed up now that I’m typing it. They could have also just gone to another bakery after learning about the first ones morals. But if they could have had no idea about the bakers religious values, then I can totally see why they got upset about the fact they wouldn’t bake the cake for them.

For the Transgender lady I mentioned in the first entry, she was very aware that the bakery, Masterpiece Cakeshop, was religious and went and asked for a cake celebrating a gender transition anyways. Sure, you have the freedom to do that, but why would you? She already had to be aware that Jack wouldn’t bake her cake but decided to try anyways. So for this reason I feel almost no sympathy for her, which may be a little harsh but this is important.

I do feel sympathy for Jack and the couple though, they had gone through so much work just because they wanted a wedding cake and Jack refused to bake it, the case had started back in 2012 and is still going on today. I may have a very opinionated say on the matter but they should still get a cake of course. I just feel that a certain someone saw this lawsuit and hopped on trying to get into a part of the action and it’s not a very cool thing to do.

Now that we have solutions that could have worked previously and also have gotten a little off topic again, some solutions for the current time could be to drop the charges, find a new bakery, or bake the wedding cake, even if it needs some really have negotiating.

To recap everything, in 2012 Charlie and David wanted to buy a wedding cake to celebrate their marriage and Jack declined due to his religion, they complained to the CCRC who sued, the court ruled the CCRC in favor and make Jack make the cake, Jack then appealed and it was brought to the Supreme Court where they eventually ruled in favor of Jack stating that the first amendment gives him the right to freedom of religion where he is allowed to deny someone a cake due to his religious values.

Homosexuality and Art

These lawsuits can easily relate to art because baking is indeed a form of art. The act of baking the cake, designing it and making it look really nice could be like sculpture or woodworking if you wanna stretch it that far. In woodworking you carve something out of some wood, or make a table or chair. Pretty much anything with wood working you have to measure, design ahead and paint to make it look like it was made well. Also a common stereotype is that gay people like art so that’s another thing that relates this topic to it.

Although the art of baking isn’t directly related to homophobia, it can be related to religion, baking bread is a part of baking, and Jesus ate bread during the last supper. Bread without yeast is also a huge part of some religions that celebrate passover, where they only had bread without yeast and also sacrificed a lamb to prevent the holy spirit from coming in and killing their first born child. The major significance of this was that the Jews were enslaved by the Egyptians and God sent the Holy Spirit to kill all the Egyptians first borns. The Holy Spirit would pass over the homes with lambs blood painted on the door, which all the Jews did. Now it’s a common practice to fast and only eat flat bread during Passover.

Painting is also a huge part of religion due to the many paintings of Jesus at the last supper, mary, Jesus on the cross, etc. These are all very significant in religion. Churches also tend to have a color theme during the year that changes during every church season, like right now we are in the season of Lent, which lasts until Easter, basically we give up one thing that we use a lot in our lives to better ourselves overall. Another season is in the winter and it’s the christmas season where we celebrate Jesus birth.

Art can be related to homosexuality because of symbolism, the gay flag, gay art, art depicting gay people, etc. A common stereotype is that gay people also like home design, which can be art. I have plenty of gay friends who are super into design and art. It tends to be very bright colors that my friends at least prefer the most. So they have that going for them I guess.

Basically to recap it all, Art is very important to both religious people, gay people, and even religious gay people because those people exist.

Masterpiece Cakeshop

Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop is a religious man who brings his religion into the workplace. In 2013 he was asked by a gay couple to make them a wedding cake and due to his conflicting religious views on homosexuality told them he would not be able to make the cake for them. Upset they sued due to believing it was homophobic discrimination.

Ever since then he has been fighting a long and difficult battle in court against them and the state of Colorado, even eventually making its way up to the supreme court where eventually, they had ruled in favor of him with the reason being that he has the freedom of religion and due to his religious values he is allowed to deny service to anyone.

Up until recently, things have been going better for him until an attorney wanted a cake with blue on the inside and pink on the outside to show a gender transition, he refused again due to his religious beliefs and values, this brought up the Civil Rights Commission again who started slandering him and just making his life horrible

This stuff has been happening a lot recently due to a mass sum of people getting offended over almost every little thing, not to say that they have no right to do so and of course they may have their own personal reasons but it has caused people to make very unnecessary changes to the way we do things, which isn’t really cool. It is very unfortunate for people like Jack Phillips, who has been dealing with this very thing, where the CCRC was hazing him for having religious values. It just doesn’t seem very fair.

That isn’t to say that all changes are bad though, there were a lot of messed up things our society had put in place before that definitely needed a change, stuff like racism and sexism were big things that we have been working on changing. The only issue is all the people who are discriminating against white people and men. There have been plenty of people who have slandered them for things like slavery, which has been illegal since before all of us are alive so it’s not like anyone could be held responsible for it.

Anyways, I’m getting a bit off topic, basically Jack Phillips has been in court for years because he didn’t want to make a gay couple a cake due to his religious values and yeah you might think “couldn’t you count a wedding cake to be just as important?” You could, but there are more than one bakeries, you can definitely find a bakery that will make your cake. But people don’t typically change or find new religious morals and values, the whole point of religion is that it’s something you believe in, and you wouldn’t go around changing what you believe in often.