Katie Kerekes, FISM News
A California court ruled in favor of a baker Friday who refused to bake a custom wedding cake for a lesbian couple in 2017.
Following a years-long battle in a discrimination case, Cathy Miller, who owns Tastries Bakery in Bakersfield, was relieved of any legal obligation to Eileen and Mireya Rodriguez-Del Rio, the couple to whom she refused service.
“We applaud the court for this decision,” said Thomas More Society special counsel Charles LiMandri in a statement. “The freedom to practice one’s religion is enshrined in the First Amendment, and the United States Supreme Court has long upheld the freedom of artistic expression.”
Judge Eric Bradshaw of the Superior Court of California in Kern County ruled against the California Department of Fair Housing and Employment in a move Miller’s lawyers at Thomas More Society called a “First Amendment Victory.”
In a statement from a 2017 interview, Miller said, “Here at Tastries, we love everyone. My husband and I are Christians, and we know that God created everyone, and He created everyone equal, so it’s not that we don’t like people of certain groups, there is just certain things that violate my conscience.”
Marriage, as outlined in the Bible, is a sacred union between one man and woman before God, a belief that the Millers uphold. For this reason, Miller says she politely recommended another bakery for the couple to patronize but recalls the couple instead filed a lawsuit.
In a statement regarding the ruling, Eileen Rodriguez-Del Rio highlighted the couple’s disappointment with the outcome, and stated that they intend to appeal in anticipation of “a different result.”
Author’s Biblical Analysis
The defined sanctity of marriage is emphasized in multiple places throughout scripture as the union of one man and one woman, a picture of Christ and his relationship with the church. We see examples of this union between man and woman highlighted in Genesis, Mark, Romans, and Ephesians, to name a few.
Ephesians 5:23 defines the marriage union as a reflection of Christ and the church, “For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.”
Additionally, we see various verses in which the text mentions homosexual relations as immoral, most notably in Leviticus.
Leviticus 20:13 says, “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination.”
In the first letter of Paul to Timothy, sexual immorality and those who practice homosexuality are referred to as “lawless and disobedient, ungodly and sinners, unholy and profane.”
When referencing the text regarding the Biblical position on this issue, God’s message is abundantly clear. Reading further into 1 Timothy chapter 1, Paul speaks of the redemption power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the grace he received through it.
And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. – 1 Timothy 1:14-15.