Wednesday, July 05, 2017

Christian baker merely a pawn in international game of homophobia


From The Huffington Post:

 A baker at the center of a discrimination lawsuit headed to the Supreme Court believes he’s got Jesus in his corner. Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado, appeared on “The View” with his attorney to discuss his refusing to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, Dave Mullins and Charlie Craig, in 2012. “I serve everybody all the time but I don’t make every cake for every event that’s required,” Phillips told the hosts of “The View” late last week. “It’s a difficult thing to be in my position and know that somebody is requesting something that I can’t in good conscience do.”

 Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? That's the problem. Phillips's assertions are not reasonable nor are they legitimate. In fact, while he may consider himself as an innocent symbol of anti-Christian oppression, Phillips is nothing more than a pawn in a larger game. However, he is useful in that his visibility obscures the game. While Phillips portrays himself as a simple baker in battle against a so-called army with a sinister agenda (the LGBTQ community), no one is talking about the organization backing him - The Alliance Defending Freedom.

 You see, this situation about Phillips and his bakery is not a case of "religious freedom."  In looking a the actions of the ADF, one realizes that it's merely another avenue in a widespread attempt to either hinder or undermine LGBTQ equality. And not just in the United States.

 Here is a couple of facts you need to know:

The Alliance Defending Freedom is considered an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. And the reason for this has to do with several other facts uncovered by the group Media Matters, including:

ADF Has Expanded Its Anti-Choice, Anti-LGBTQ Extemism Internationally. While ADF has largely run out of options for promoting the criminalization of homosexuality in America, the group has taken its anti-sodomy agenda overseas. ADF has actively worked to promote and defend anti-sodomy laws that criminalize gay sex in Jamaica, Belize and India. In 2010, the United Nations granted special consultant status to ADF, allowing the group to help shape international human rights policy and treaties. More recently, the group has become involved in the Organization of American States, where ADF’s mission has been battling “abortion and radical sexual agendas.”  
 ADF Is Behind The National Push For Anti-LGBT “Religious Freedom” Laws. Since 2013, ADF has led the national push for so-called “religious freedom” laws (RFRAs) that seek to enshrine a legal right to discriminate against LGBTQ people. ADF was behind Arizona’s failed 2014 RFRA, Indiana’s controversial 2015 RFRA, and similar bills that were eventually killed in Colorado, Georgia, and Arkansas.  
 ADF Is Leading The National Campaign For “Bathroom Bills” Targeting Transgender Youth. In 2014, ADF launched a national campaign to eliminate nondiscrimination protections for transgender students and instead enshrine its own legislation that would prevent transgender students from accessing facilities consistent with their gender identity. ADF has influenced discriminatory state and local school district policies across the country with so-called “bathroom bills,” like North Carolina’s infamous HB 2, that borrow language from ADF’s model legislation.  
 ADF Believes In A “Homosexual Agenda” Dedicated To Destroying Christianity. ADF founder Alan Sears literally wrote the book on the alleged “homosexual agenda” -- his 2003 book The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today compared the gay "propaganda" movement to what "Hitler did so masterfully in Nazi Germany, to get the American public on their side." As SPLC noted, ADF “has also promoted the idea of a ‘homosexual agenda’ -- a nefarious scheme to destroy Christianity and, eventually, civilization.”  
 ADF Claims Non-Discrimination Protections For Transgender Students Pose A "Public Safety Risk... To Woman And To Children." ADF claims that allowing transgender students to access facilities that correspond with their gender identity would "seriously endanger students' privacy and safety," and that laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity create a "significantly increased public safety risk primarily to women and to children."

Bottom line - behind this false story of an innocent baker beset by a supposed evil group attempting to make him compromise his religious beliefs is a powerhouse organization pushing the same thing that these so-called cultural battle issues have always been about:

Making life as difficult as hell for the LGBTQ community.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I grew up in a very conservative Christian church. I was never taught as a youngster that I must express my disapproval of someone else or that I must refuse service to people who didn't fall in line with my Church's dogma. It's become so nasty and I don't see anything of Christ's teachings in what they do now. The sad thing is, the people who practice this type of Christianism actually believe this helps their message, when in reality, I think it just turns people like me off. I turned my back on my church decades ago as did many others. Now congregations are dwindling and churches are closing their doors more and more. If they keep up this message of hate and discrimination, they'll become increasingly irrelevant.