Appearing Thursday on ABC's The
View, Jack Phillips, the Colorado baker who refused to serve a
gay couple, said that Jesus would have done the same.
In 2012, Phillips, the owner of
Denver-based Masterpiece Cakeshop, refused to consider baking a cake
for Dave Mullins and Charlie Craig. The men married in Massachusetts
and wanted to buy a cake from Phillips for their Denver reception.
Phillips said that serving the couple would violate his religious
faith. Colorado at the time recognized gay and lesbian couples with
civil unions, not marriage.
The couple sued, saying that Phillips'
faith does not give him a right to discriminate, and a Colorado court
found that Phillips had discriminated against the men under Colorado
law. After the Colorado Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal,
Phillips turned to the Supreme Court, arguing that the First
Amendment protects his religious rights. The high court will hear
his case in the fall.
“I don't believe that Jesus would've
made a cake [for the couple] if he had been a baker,” Phillips
told the hosts of The
View.
“Aw, come on. Jesus would've made
the cake,” host Joy Behar said to applause from the audience.
“That's a dealbreaker. Jesus is going to make the cake.”
Phillips' attorney, Kristen Waggoner,
pushed back, claiming that under the Colorado law Behar could be
forced to write a speech in support of the GOP health care bill.
“I don't think it's exactly like
that,” Behar replied.
“It is. It's the same law,” said
Waggonner, who works for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a
Christian conservative group that is vocally opposed to LGBT rights.