Would He Do That?

Posted by Tina

I saw this headline in a side bar at a web site yesterday:

Joy Behar to Christian baker: C’mon, Jesus would have made a wedding cake for a gay couple

I didn’t read the article immediately to discover how the discussion went from there. I do know how I would have reacted to the question/declaration. I would have agreed that Jesus exemplifies love and forgiveness like no other who ever walked the earth. But I’m not sure baking a cake for a gay couple is something Jesus would do. Jesus was filled with compassion but He was a stickler for the rules. When He encountered the woman at the well He confronted her about her sin of adultery and told her to “go and sin no more.” Jesus forgives sin if we are truly repentant; enabling and encouraging sin was not his bag.

People often ascribe human qualities to God. We struggle with the idea of rules without exceptions. We struggle with our own human failings. We are often troubled by the conflicts that can make life challenging and confusing. We can’t quite grasp the mystery.

Joy and her panel members thought that the baker was judging the customer. That may or may not be true, we all judge others. The Christian woman had a different perspective:

Two other panelists press Jack Phillips, the baker, on the idea that he’s being judgey with gay couples, with one imagining that Christ might disapprove of their wedding but would tell them “I’m going to love you anyways.” Well … yes, that’s how Christianity works. But the issue, of course, isn’t whether Phillips is “judging” his customers or whether he loves his gay neighbors, it’s whether he should be conscripted by the state into participating in an event which his faith doesn’t condone. The guy’s not claiming that gay couples are less moral than any other variety of sinners, only that the act of marriage between them is a sin which he doesn’t want to be made complicit in. Jedediah Bila asks him at one point if he’d refuse to make cakes for other sinners, like adulterers. She doesn’t get a square answer, but I’m guessing if you asked Phillips to make you a torte for a weekend tryst with your mistress (inscription: “Here’s to Cheating!”), yeah, he’d probably turn you down.

I tend to agree.

Find the article, “Joy Behar to Christian baker: C’mon, Jesus would have made a wedding cake for a gay couple at Hot Air

Be safe out there this holiday weekend and God bless.