Colorado baker Jack Phillips says Jesus
wanted him to deny a gay couple a wedding cake.
On Friday, a judge told Phillips that
he must serve all customers regardless of sexual orientation or face
fines. The “cease and desist” order came after Phillips, the
owner of suburban Denver-based Masterpiece Cakeshop, refused to
consider baking a cake for a Denver wedding reception to celebrate
the Massachusetts marriage of Dave Mullins and Charlie Craig.
(Related: Judge:
Colorado baker who refused gay couple broke the law.)
Phillips appeared Tuesday on Fox &
Friends, where he was warmly greeted by host Elisabeth Hasselbeck
in a segment tilted The Death of Free Enterprise.
“Does becoming a business owner mean
you have to check your convictions at the door?” Hasselbeck
rhetorically asked viewers.
“Why is it important for you to have
a business and not have to abandon personal religious beliefs just to
make a buck?”
“I believe that's what God's designed
for me to do,” Phillips answered.
Phillips vowed to go to jail before
selling a wedding cake to a gay couple: “You know, if that's what
it takes. It's not like I have chosen this team or that team. This
is who I am, it's what I believe.”
“Do you feel as though you are
forfeiting your own rights and being forced, in other words, to
participate in their wedding by making a cake for them?” Hasselbeck
asked.
“They would be taking away my rights
to do what I do as a business owner, as an American citizen,”
Phillips replied. “And as a follower of Jesus Christ, I don't
believe that's what he wants me to do. And so my priorities would be
towards my faith rather than towards my safety or security.”
“We wish you well,” Hasselbeck
concluded. (The video is embedded on this page. Visit
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