Opinion: Can a cake baker be a cleric, an artist and a businessman all at once?

To the editor: Jack Phillips, owner of the Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colo., who refused to serve same-sex couples, is in the wrong line of business. (“The ‘gay wedding cake’ case isn’t about religious freedom or free speech,” Opinion, Dec. 4)

He should have worked as a preacher serving his God, or as a bona fide artist creating masterpieces while exercising his artistic license — not a baker in the guise of both professions.

Dienyih Chen, Redondo Beach

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To the editor: I wonder if op-ed article author Louise Melling of the American Civil Liberties Union would be in favor of using the force of law to require Muslim bakers to prepare and sell wedding cakes with Christian symbols, Jewish bakers to bake cakes with swastikas (neo-Nazis get married too) or black bakers to bake cakes for “plantation weddings.”

In short, she would have government require businesses to express sentiments hateful or at odds to the business owner, provided the sentiment is one that the right sort of people approve. But remember: No one’s viewpoint stays on top forever.

Alternatively, we could allow the horrifying possibility of gay people having to find another baker.

David Hendershot, Fullerton

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To the editor: It’s people like Phillips who make it it difficult to explain my Christian faith.

We are told that only God can judge what’s in a man’s heart, yet Phillips judges every sinner who enters his shop (by the way, we are all sinners) and decides who gets his business. It’s not a sin to bake a cake, no matter the customer.

Using Christianity to justify discrimination is not what God intended.

Philip Guiral, Laguna Hills

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