Jack Phillips, the Colorado baker who
refused to sell a cake to help celebrate a gay couple's out-of-state
nuptials, says his freedom is under attack.
Last month, a judge told Phillips,
owner of the Denver-based Masterpiece Cakeshop, that he must serve
all customers regardless of sexual orientation or face fines.
Phillips said that selling a wedding cake to a gay couple would
violate his religious faith.
(Related: Colorado
baker who refused gay couple broke the law.)
“It is shocking that the government
has attempted to take away my freedom, and really the freedom of all
Coloradoans, simply for declining to design and create a wedding cake
for a marriage that is not even recognized in the state of Colorado,”
Phillips
told the National Review Online. “I am being punished for
living and working according to my faith and the marriage laws of the
state of Colorado.”
Phillips added that the incident had
“strengthened” his resolve.
“The coercion favored by the
government and the ACLU in the name of 'tolerance' is a chilling and
unprecedented attack on freedom,” he said. “If anything, this
has actually strengthened my commitment to the First Amendment and
the principles upon which this country was founded.”