Religious Liberty Takes the Cake: Supreme Court Speaks up for Religious Liberty, But Where Were Many Fellow Christians?

Supreme Court rules 7-2 in favor of Jack Phillips, doing the right thing. But there is more work to do.

Today, in a 7-2 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Jack Phillips and the Masterpiece Cake Shop. It’s not the ruling that many wanted, but it does rule that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission was inapporpriately hostile toward Phillip’s religious liberty claim.

CNN explains:

The ruling, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, is not the wide-ranging ruling on religious liberty that some expected. It is tailored to the case at hand with the justices holding that members of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission showed animus toward Phillips specifically when they suggested his claims of religious freedom was made to justify discrimination.

In doing so, the Supreme Court is still working to set an important line where Christians can and will choose to dissent from the growing acceptance of same-sex marriage in society. And, this is a significant moment as it is the first major ruling since Obergefell, which made same-sex marriage the law of the land.

However, it is not the final moment. For example, Justice Kennedy commented that:

Still, the delicate question of when the free exercise of his religion must yield to an otherwise valid exercise of state power needed to be determined in an adjudication in which religious hostility on the part of the State itself would not be a factor in the balance the State sought to reach.

That language points to more challenges to come. However, this ruling does offer us an opportunity to consider how Christians might respond.

Quick background: Jack Phillips is a Colorado baker who refused to make a custom wedding cake for a gay couple because of his Christian faith. Phillips does not design cakes for any events that conflict with his Christian values or beliefs. He believes he has ...