The newest battleground in America’s fight for civil rights and equality has been set in Longwood, Florida. In what he calls a social experiment, Tele-Evangelist Joshua Feuerstein called a bakery, that had identified itself as pro-gay, and requested a cake that sported a message saying “We do not support gay marriage.” Sharon Haller, owner of Cut the Cake, at first thought the call was a prank and when reassured that Feuerstein would purchase this cake she said, “We wouldn’t do that, sorry.”
Feuerstein recorded the very brief conversation and used the call to claim hypocrisy, as the owner didn’t feel compelled by law to defy her beliefs for the sake of the custom.
“It obviously violates her principles. So, she doesn’t feel like she should be forced to make the cake. And yet it is, that there’s all this hoopla going around because Christian bakeries feel that they shouldn’t be forced. Look, this isn’t about discrimination. This is about them having the freedom.”
He asks if this is what progress means, to be free as long as you agree?
“Have we gotten to the point in America where the left is so ‘open minded’ that they’re close minded to anybody that doesn’t agree with them, or is America big enough for different points of view? Christian bakeries should never be forced to do something that violates their Christian principles. That’s not American.”
Unfortunately, the video spurred a wave of anger and harassment towards the bakery. According to WND, They began to receive aggressive phone calls and negative online reviews from people who had seen the video. (Much like what happened to Memories Pizza in Indiana.) Not meaning to cause any harm, Feuerstein removed the video when he became aware of its impact. Though, the bakery chose to repost the video onto their Facebook page, saying that the “damage was already done” and “stop people like Joshua Feuerstein.”
Things are looking grim for Feuerstein, as Florida law requires a "two-party consent" when a recording is being made. Haller is seeking help from the FBI to determine her legal options against him, possibly suing him for damages to her reputation and business. According to the Orlando Sentinel, he has also been on the receiving end of harassment and death-threats.
Though, Feuerstein is not the only one to test the boundaries of what service can be declined by gay-sympathetic businesses.
A man named Bill Jack, in response to a Civil Rights Commission forcefully compelling a Christian-owned bakery to bake cakes for a gay wedding, decided he would test those same waters under a different flag. Jack went to three different bakeries and requested cakes that were shaped like open bibles featuring different verses.
He was denied at every turn and when he filed for a similar ruling from the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, he was once again let down. He was told that the bakeries did not discriminate against his religion - they only refused to bake cakes with “derogatory language and imagery.”
It’s a sad world to live in when a bible and the words within are depicted as derogatory by a government institution whose job is to ensure equality and fairness under law, for all.
Another man, Theodore Shoebat, also made videos much like Feuerstein’s. He called 13 prominent pro-gay bakeries and recorded the conversations they had. He asked about the fairness and equality of their ability to decline service to an opposing viewpoint. It wasn’t pretty. He had a lesbian baker tell him that she would make him his cookie, but place a large phallus on it, purely to insult his Christian sensibilities.
“A Christian making a homosexual cake with ‘Support Gay Marriage’ goes against his faith, and a homosexual putting ‘Gay Marriage Is Wrong’ goes against his faith as well,” Shoebat wrote. “Now of course we honor their right to say no; this is not the issue, but what about honoring the Christian’s right to also say no?”
See all three above-mentioned videos, below:
Joshua Feuerstein:
(WARNING: Videos below feature explicit language from angry pro-gay bakers)
Theodore Shoebat, part 1:
Theodore Shoebat, part 2: