Queer Voicesgordon-klingenschmitt-gay-discriminationgay issuesGay Wedding Cakes

Gordon Klingenschmitt Argues Colorado Baker's Refusal To Make Gay Wedding Cake 'Shows Compassion'

'The Ultimate Hate Speech Is To Endorse Homosexuality'
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By 

Senior Culture Reporter, HuffPost

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Former Navy chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt is the latest conservative voice to commend Colorado bakery owner Jack Phillips for his controversial refusal to make a wedding cake for a gay couple.

As Right Wing Watch first reported, Klingenschmitt -- who is no stranger to anti-gay declarations -- defended Phillips was a man of "love" and "peace" who "wants to show compassion even to the sinner" by denying wedding cakes to same-sex couples.

"There is a demonic spirit that is influencing some of the lawmakers, not just the gay couple...of course they want to parade and celebrate their sodomy, but they also want to force a Christian to do that," Klingenschmitt told listeners on his "Pray in Jesus Name" radio program.

If Phillips had opted to make the wedding cake for Dave Mullins and Charlie Craig, he would've been "endorsing" the couples' sin, and hence he would be "showing cruelty" rather than compassion.

"The ultimate hate speech is to endorse homosexuality," Klingenschmitt concluded.

Last week, the Southern Evangelical Seminary's Richard Land blasted the Colorado Civil Rights Commission's May 30 decision to uphold a December 2013 ruling which found that Phillips had discriminated against Mullins and Craig when he denied their request.

"This baker did not refuse to serve these people. He offered them his services -- he just did not want to provide his services as part of a gay wedding ceremony," Land said in a Family Research Council radio show broadcast. "This would be like going to a bakery owned by an African-American, and saying, ‘By the way, you have to bake a cake for a KKK induction ceremony, under penalty of law.’"

Meanwhile, right-wing evangelist Pat Robertson argued that Jesus Christ wouldn't have served same-sex couples because they would have been stoned to death instead.

"So Jesus would not have baked them a wedding cake nor would he have made them a bed to sleep in because they wouldn’t have been there," Robertson said. "But we don’t have that in this country here so that’s the way it is."

Meanwhile, Phillips has said that his bakery, Masterpiece Cakeshop, will no longer make wedding cakes of any sort in the wake of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission's May 30 ruling.

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Before You Go

LBGT Service Cases
(01 of07)
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An Iowa lesbian couple might have hoped to find a wedding cake that was both delicate and sweet, but they say their experience with a Des Moines-based baker left behind a sour taste. As KCCI-TV is reporting, the owner of Victoria's Cake Cottage refused to bake a cake for Trina Vodraska and Janelle Sievers, who are planning a June wedding, because she is Christian. Victoria Childress, who runs her bakery from home, says it's her right as a business owner to turn away customers."I said, 'I'll tell you I'm a Christian, and I do have convictions.' And I said, 'I'm sorry to tell you, but I'm not going to be able to do your cake," Childress, who met the couple during a taste-testing appointment, said. "I didn't do the cake because of my convictions for their lifestyle. It is my right, and it's not to discriminate against them. It's not so much to do with them, it's to do with me and my walk with God and what I will answer [to] Him for." (credit:AP)
(02 of07)
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A Phoenix-based lesbian couple cried foul after being told to "get a room" by a hotel restaurant manager during a romantic dinner. The Arizona Republic says Kenyata White and Aeimee Diaz, both 38, chose to celebrate their two-year anniversary at the District American Kitchen and Wine Bar, located inside the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel, on Sunday because they met there. "My partner and I were reminiscing...in one of the tall booths," White told the paper. "I had my arm around her neck, and she had her hand around my waist. I gave her a hug for about a minute, pulled myself away to give her a quick kiss, and then we continued talking."White told AZ Family that she and Diaz were then approached by a restaurant manager, who "came up to us and said we should get a room. That our behavior was inappropriate and we should leave the establishment."
(03 of07)
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Rose Marie Belforti, the town clerk in Ledyard, N.Y., drew national attention after refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The town's government is behind Belforti, saying it cannot force her to issue licenses. (credit:AP)
(04 of07)
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A Florida-based lesbian couple said they were humiliated by their driver's license application "nightmare" after the Pinellas County DMV rejected their name change request after an hour-long wait.
(05 of07)
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The owner of a new gay bar on Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood said he was refused service because a printing company thinks homosexuality is wrong. The printing company's owner argued he didn't approve of the artwork on the promotional material. (credit:Getty )
(06 of07)
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Earlier this year, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit against the Wildflower Inn in Lyndonville, Vermont after the proprietors refused to host Katherine Baker and Ming-Lien Linsley's same-sex wedding reception. As ABC is reporting, the inn updated its website shortly thereafter to announce it is "no longer hosting weddings or special events." (credit:AP)
(07 of07)
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In August, Alix Genter, a lesbian bride-to-be, claimed to have been denied service at Here Comes the Bride in Somers Point, N.J., after the salon's manager said she didn't want to be associated with the pending "illegal action," according to the Philadelphia Daily News. (credit:Alamy)
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