Longwood bakery takes heat for refusing to make anti-gay cake

[Zaac]

When a caller asked Sharon Haller to make a sheet cake with an anti-gay-marriage message, the Longwood baker thought it was a prank and hung up.But a day later, Haller was still dealing with threats and other fallout after a video of the conversation was posted online.

"People said we should go kill ourselves," said Haller, owner of Cut the Cake bakery. "They are being very threatening."

The video was only online for a few hours, but it was long enough for supporters of the caller — Arizona evangelist Joshua Feuerstein — to barrage the bakery with phone calls and Facebook messages containing insults, threats and accusations of being anti-Christian.

In the Thursday video, Feuerstein calls the bakery and says, "We need a sheet cake, and we need it to say, 'We do not support gay marriage.'"
"Is this a crank call?" Haller asks. "No, we wouldn't do that. Sorry."

After Haller hung up, Feuerstein continued in the nearly four-minute video to criticize her, the bakery and gay-marriage supporters for being intolerant of religious beliefs.The video was taken down, but Cut the Cake re-posted it Friday.

Cyndol Knarr, Haller's daughter who works at the bakery, said they put it back up after the wave of criticism turned into support."Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! For standing up for what is right," said one Facebook post.

The video came after this week's controversial proposed law in Indiana allowing businesses to decline service based on religious beliefs, including opposition to homosexuality and gay marriage."We had hundreds of calls. It was every 30 seconds," Haller said in an interview Friday.
Haller said she has spoken with the FBI and has been asked to keep track of calls.

"We're just kind of scared right now," Haller said.

FBI officials could not be reached for comment.

The video could violate a Florida law that requires consent of all parties to record a telephone conversation, said Andrea Flynn Mogensen, a Sarasota lawyer who specializes in civil-liberty cases."The same statute that criminalizes recording phone calls also criminalizes posting it and publishing it," Mogensen said.The law applies even if the call was placed from outside Florida. Recording conversations without consent is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

Feuerstein has a history of attacking atheists and gay-marriage proponents. According to his website, he is a former pastor in Fountain Hills, Ariz., and a "former television and radio evangelist who now uses social media to share his personal story of redemption and the hope of how Jesus Christ can heal a hurting heart!"He did not respond to e-mail requests for comment.

Cut the Cake does not advertise itself as a gay or gay-friendly bakery, but it has appeared on third-party websites as a business that has done work for gay weddings."We work with the gay community; we work with everybody of all religions or whoever," Haller said.

For now, Haller is trying to get back to work, since she has orders to fill for the weekend. A friend and fellow baker came in Friday to help."I have cakes to bake," she said.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/os-cut-the-cake-bakery-gay-fight-20150403-story.html

 

[Don]

Not cool. This is the kind of behavior I expect from the Westboro people.

 

[Rolfe]

Not cool. This is the kind of behavior I expect from the Westboro people.

Exactly what I thought.

 

[matt wade]

"Cut the Cake does not advertise itself as a gay or gay-friendly bakery, but it has appeared on third-party websites as a business that has done work for gay weddings."We work with the gay community; we work with everybody of all religions or whoever," Haller said."

No, obviously you do not. You don't work with those that are anti-gay.

 

[Baptist Believer]

No, obviously you do not. You don't work with those that are anti-gay.

Business have a right to choose the projects with which they would like to engage. Apparently, she didn't want to do a project that was politicized and/or for people who are hateful.

They supporters of this so-called "Christian" evangelist demonstrated that they are hateful by their attacks on this bakery.

You can oppose homosexual practices and marriage and not be hateful.

If I were in her position, I would have done exactly the same thing.

 

[matt wade]

Business have a right to choose the projects with which they would like to engage. Apparently, she didn't want to do a project that was politicized and/or for people who are hateful.

They supporters of this so-called "Christian" evangelist demonstrated that they are hateful by their attacks on this bakery.

You can oppose homosexual practices and marriage and not be hateful.

If I were in her position, I would have done exactly the same thing.

I absolutely agree that a business should be able to pick and choose who they do business with.

My comments were regarding the fact that they say one thing and do another.

 

[Baptist Believer]

My comments were regarding the fact that they say one thing and do another.

They are quoted as saying: "We work with the gay community; we work with everybody of all religions or whoever."

I suspect that is true. They probably do work with all religions and persons of same and opposite sex attractions. However, very few businesses of that type work with obnoxious people if they can help it.

This is a bakery. I doubt they want to cultivate obnoxious customers. They also probably don't want to cultivate political baking projects. There's a decent chance they would refrain from decorating a "We support gay marriage" cake.

I don't have any way of knowing that for sure, but I think it is wrong to automatically assume the worst of others and call them hypocrites without knowing anything more than what is written in a news story.

As Christians, we are supposed to be generous with other people. Assuming the worst of others and posting it on the internet in a public forum is not part of loving your neighbor.

 

[Zaac]

This guy sounds like he is really trying to get a sound byte on FOX News. I can clearly see him positioning to to sit with Hannity or O'reilly and say that this is why RFRA is needed.

 

[matt wade]

This is a bakery. I doubt they want to cultivate obnoxious customers. They also probably don't want to cultivate political baking projects. There's a decent chance they would refrain from decorating a "We support gay marriage" cake.

Bologna. There's zero chance they would refrain from making that cake.

 

[Zaac]

The sad thing about these new RFRA laws or attempted laws is that they are advancing gay rights and are pushing states to legislatively say that businesses cannot discriminate based upon sexual orientation, when before no such legislation has existed statewide.

So instead of expanding religious freedom for Christians, these attempts to legislate discrimination have, because of the public outcry, forced Indiana and probably some other states to widen the protective umbrella against discrimination to include LGBT.

 

[777]

Business have a right to choose the projects with which they would like to engage. Apparently, she didn't want to do a project that was politicized and/or for people who are hateful.

They supporters of this so-called "Christian" evangelist demonstrated that they are hateful by their attacks on this bakery.

You can oppose homosexual practices and marriage and not be hateful.

If I were in her position, I would have done exactly the same thing.

You got it, tired of both sides dragging bakeries and florists into a cultural war. Just for kicks, in Colorado, some people tried to order a cake (very offensive IMO) with all these Bible verses on it and the bakery refused to do so:

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/new...ry-wins-right-to-refuse-to-make-anti-gay-cake

There's your solution - make them decorate their own cakes with any kind of political message they so choose.

 

[Baptist Believer]

Bologna. There's zero chance they would refrain from making that cake.

I guess you know everything. Even the motivations and intentions of other people's hearts.

Since you have that gift, please put it to good use in the service of God's Kingdom.

 

[Salty]

Bottom line is that this bakery is guilty of discrimination.
Now, IMHO, the individual did not really want the cake - but was only trying to prove a point.

What the baker should have done, was to tell him to come in a make a deposit. ( you could get around this by only requiring first time customers to make a deposit.)

 

[Jedi Knight]

I guess you know everything. Even the motivations and intentions of other people's hearts.

Since you have that gift, please put it to good use in the service of God's Kingdom.

GREAT ADVICE!:applause:

 

[matt wade]

I guess you know everything. Even the motivations and intentions of other people's hearts.

Since you have that gift, please put it to good use in the service of God's Kingdom.

You're the same guy that told us they wouldn't bake it. So go and follow your own advice. :wavey:

 

[Baptist Believer]

You're the same guy that told us they wouldn't bake it.

Actually, I wrote, "There's a decent chance they would refrain from decorating a 'We support gay marriage' cake."

That's quite a bit different from writing, "There's zero chance they would refrain from making that cake" as you did.

I gave them the benefit of the doubt, but you told us you knew exactly what they would do.

It's okay if you disagree. It is not okay to be dishonest.

 

[matt wade]

Actually, I wrote, "There's a decent chance they would refrain from decorating a 'We support gay marriage' cake."

That's quite a bit different from writing, "There's zero chance they would refrain from making that cake" as you did.

I gave them the benefit of the doubt, but you told us you knew exactly what they would do.

It's okay if you disagree. It is not okay to be dishonest.

The difference is I typed what I believed, and you didn't type what you believed. Oops, there I go again knowing what someone meant.

 

[Baptist Believer]

The difference is I typed what I believed, and you didn't type what you believed. Oops, there I go again knowing what someone meant.

If you have that gift, then you are intentionally bearing false witness. If you do not have that gift, you are deluded.

Either way, you are not it to comment on my motives.

 

[righteousdude2]

If you have that gift, then you are intentionally bearing false witness. If you do not have that gift, you are deluded.

Either way, you are not it to comment on my motives.

Great point. But he may still disagree with you. Does sound like he has the gift of knowledge, and most on the board belive those spiritual gifts ended in acts. :thumbs:

 

[Revmitchell]

So this evangelist calls and asks if they would make this cake, once they said no he makes a video talking about what he preceives as a doubel standard given the recent event regarding the pizza place.

So what was done wrong?

Where was the hate displayed by him?

Do we know that the other so called "supporters of the evangelist" are actually Christians being mean and hateful?

Could the other people simply be liberals acting like that to give others a bad name?

I do not believe we know either way.