A Denver, Colorado, baker who told the local OutFront magazine she was "half-Jewish, half-Catholic" faces a rising controversy over her refusal to inscribe anti-gay messages on a Bible-shaped wedding cake.
The baker's stance, however, is drawing support from both same-sex marriage advocates and two evangelical Christian organizations which have often been at odds in the marriage debate.
A Colorado state agency is investigating a discrimination complaint against Marjorie Silva, who owns Azucar Bakery in Denver. Silva said a customer asked her to write what she called a "hateful" message on the cake during a March 2014 visit to the pastry shop, according to TheDenverChannel.com.
"I just want to make cake for happy people," Silva told Fox31. "Im Christian. I support Christians. We make a lot of Christian cakes. But this just wasnt right."
The early 2014 incident came a few months after an evangelical Christian cake maker got into trouble with state authorities for turning down a wedding cake order from a same-sex couple.
But while that case drew wide support from evangelicals, the complaint against Azucar Bakery may not fare as well. The Christian Post reports that an analyst with Focus on the Family, an evangelical group in Colorado Springs, sides with Silva in her refusing the request for an anti-gay marriage cake.
"This is a free speech issue, and we support freedom of speech. It's also a religious or conscience issue the government should not force people to violate their core beliefs," Focus' issues analyst Jeff Johnston told the online newspaper. "Just as a Christian baker should not be required to create a cake for a same-sex ceremony, this baker should not be required to create a cake with a message that goes against her conscience."
And in a statement released Friday, the Alliance Defending Freedom also argued for Silva's conscience rights. "Every American is guaranteed the freedom to live, work, think and speak without fear of being punished for exercising these very basic freedoms," Jeremy Tedesco, a senior legal counsel for the group, said. "ADF vigorously opposes tribunals like the Colorado Civil Rights Commission punishing citizens for doing nothing more than exercising their constitutionally protected rights."
Silva, who emigrated to the U.S. from Peru, described for 7NewsDenver what the customer requested as "words like 'detestable', 'sinners.' He wanted me to draw two guys holding hands with an X on top, so it was a very hateful message against the gay community."
While Colorado officials haven't disclosed who made the complaint, KUSA-9 television reported Christian activist Bill Jack, a former teacher who co-founded the evangelical Worldview Academy ministry, filed the complaint. Jack reportedly wanted the cake decorated with a picture of two men and the letter "X" superimposed on the image. According a statement Jack released to the television station he said, "I believe I was discriminated against by the bakery based on my creed."
Such faith-based discrimination has resulted in state action.
In December 2013, an administrative law judge in Colorado ordered Masterpiece Cakes, a suburban Denver baker whose owner said baking cakes for same-sex weddings violated his religious conscience, to supply wedding cakes to all and undergo anti-discrimination training.
Jack Phillips, who owns the Masterpiece bakeshop, is appealing the ruling and said he is no longer selling wedding cakes of any kind. Tedesco is also representing Phillips in his appeal. "Ms. Silva should not be forced to use her artistic abilities to further a message with which she sincerely disagrees, and neither should Jack Phillips," Tedesco said.
The baker's stance, however, is drawing support from both same-sex marriage advocates and two evangelical Christian organizations which have often been at odds in the marriage debate.
A Colorado state agency is investigating a discrimination complaint against Marjorie Silva, who owns Azucar Bakery in Denver. Silva said a customer asked her to write what she called a "hateful" message on the cake during a March 2014 visit to the pastry shop, according to TheDenverChannel.com.
"I just want to make cake for happy people," Silva told Fox31. "Im Christian. I support Christians. We make a lot of Christian cakes. But this just wasnt right."
The early 2014 incident came a few months after an evangelical Christian cake maker got into trouble with state authorities for turning down a wedding cake order from a same-sex couple.
But while that case drew wide support from evangelicals, the complaint against Azucar Bakery may not fare as well. The Christian Post reports that an analyst with Focus on the Family, an evangelical group in Colorado Springs, sides with Silva in her refusing the request for an anti-gay marriage cake.
"This is a free speech issue, and we support freedom of speech. It's also a religious or conscience issue the government should not force people to violate their core beliefs," Focus' issues analyst Jeff Johnston told the online newspaper. "Just as a Christian baker should not be required to create a cake for a same-sex ceremony, this baker should not be required to create a cake with a message that goes against her conscience."
And in a statement released Friday, the Alliance Defending Freedom also argued for Silva's conscience rights. "Every American is guaranteed the freedom to live, work, think and speak without fear of being punished for exercising these very basic freedoms," Jeremy Tedesco, a senior legal counsel for the group, said. "ADF vigorously opposes tribunals like the Colorado Civil Rights Commission punishing citizens for doing nothing more than exercising their constitutionally protected rights."
Silva, who emigrated to the U.S. from Peru, described for 7NewsDenver what the customer requested as "words like 'detestable', 'sinners.' He wanted me to draw two guys holding hands with an X on top, so it was a very hateful message against the gay community."
While Colorado officials haven't disclosed who made the complaint, KUSA-9 television reported Christian activist Bill Jack, a former teacher who co-founded the evangelical Worldview Academy ministry, filed the complaint. Jack reportedly wanted the cake decorated with a picture of two men and the letter "X" superimposed on the image. According a statement Jack released to the television station he said, "I believe I was discriminated against by the bakery based on my creed."
Such faith-based discrimination has resulted in state action.
In December 2013, an administrative law judge in Colorado ordered Masterpiece Cakes, a suburban Denver baker whose owner said baking cakes for same-sex weddings violated his religious conscience, to supply wedding cakes to all and undergo anti-discrimination training.
Jack Phillips, who owns the Masterpiece bakeshop, is appealing the ruling and said he is no longer selling wedding cakes of any kind. Tedesco is also representing Phillips in his appeal. "Ms. Silva should not be forced to use her artistic abilities to further a message with which she sincerely disagrees, and neither should Jack Phillips," Tedesco said.