LOVE WINS FAG. That’s not the cake I ordered, @WholeFoods and I am offended for myself & the entire #LGBT community pic.twitter.com/cuxuv6mL3G

— Jordan D Brown (@PasJordanBrown) April 18, 2016

When I first heard about the Austin HateCake™, with “LOVE WINS FAG” written on it in icing, I knew it had to be a hoax. The idea that a Whole Foods bakery anywhere would produce such a cake is risible. The idea that a Whole Foods in ultraliberal Austin, Texas, would do that sort of thing is beyond absurd. I’m glad that Whole Foods is countersuing the Rev. Jordan Brown, the gay pastor who has reaped a bountiful publicity harvest by claiming he was slurred by the HateCake™. According to the New York Daily News:

Whole Foods also pointed out the baker behind the cake was part of the “LGBTQ community,” adding that Brown’s lawsuit was “completely false and directly contradicts Whole Foods Market’s inclusive culture, which celebrates diversity.”

The barcode for the cake was also on top of the packaging during checkout, but later in Brown’s video, it’s shown to be on the side and bottom corners.

Brown, an openly gay founder of the Church of Open Doors, originally filed the lawsuit against the national food company for discrimination and asked for unspecified damages on Monday.

“Pastor Jordan spent the remainder of the day in tears. He was and is extremely upset,” the lawsuit said. “It is impossible to calculate the emotional distress these events have caused.”

If that were true, and an ugly word written in frosting on a cake causes incalculable emotional distress to this tender young evangelist, then Pastor Jordan probably shouldn’t be let out of the house unsupervised. But it is my opinion that this is not remotely true.

A GetReligion reader is way ahead of the media on this one. Check out Terry Mattingly’s post, which asks questions about whether Jordan Brown is actually an ordained pastor, and whether or not his church is a real thing. An inquisitive reader posted this comment:

I am not a journalist but I did do some checking on the Church of Open Doors. The “congregation” meets in the community room/area of an apartment complex. The official mailing address is a post office box at an establishment named “Drive Thru Postal”. On the “church” website, there is no mention of governance or oversight. According to Facebook link, the “church” utilizes MailChimp, I went to MailChimp and found the archive of emails for the “church” and the majority of them are pleas for money. This is the most recent:

“May starts a NEW chapter – We found a new permanent location to rent!

We can’t do this without your financial support! (The gospel is always free, but can be expensive to get out!)

One of our other goals is to take our services live via webcast to reach anyone seeking the gospel outside of Austin.

To support the outreach of your community, we depend solely on donations of any size!”

Hmmm. Whole Foods is going to own this guy by the time this is over.

Jordan Brown’s error was picking on a most unlikely target, and one with a pile of money to pay lawyers to fight back. If he had picked for his scam a small, independently owned bakery, particularly one run by Christians, he would still be a martyr.