They’re at it again: Colorado leftists, abetted by the state’s civil rights commission, are harassing Masterpiece Cake Shop baker Jack Phillips. This time, a transgender who has been trolling Phillips for some time filed an anti-discrimination complaint against him. David French gives background:

Here’s what happened. According to a verified complaint filed today by my old colleagues at the Alliance Defending Freedom, on June 26, 2017 — the very day the Supreme Court granted Jack’s request to review his wedding-cake case — a lawyer named Autumn Scardina called Masterpiece Cakeshop and “asked Masterpiece Cakeshop to create a custom cake with ‘a blue exterior and a pink interior’ — a cake ‘design’ that, according to the lawyer,” reflected “the fact that [the lawyer] transitioned from male-to-female and that [the lawyer] had come out as transgender.”

Lest anyone wonder whether this request was made in good faith, consider that this same person apparently made a number of requests to Masterpiece Cakeshop. In September 2017, a caller asked Phillips to design a birthday cake for Satan that would feature an image of Satan smoking marijuana. The name “Scardina” appeared on the caller identification. A few days earlier, a person had emailed Jack asking for a cake with a similar theme — except featuring “an upside-down cross, under the head of Lucifer.” This same emailer reminded Phillips that “religion is a protected class.”

On the very day that Phillips won his case at the Supreme Court, a person emailed with yet another deliberately offensive design request:

I’m thinking a three-tiered white cake. Cheesecake frosting. And the topper should be a large figure of Satan, licking a 9″ black Dildo. I would like the dildo to be an actual working model, that can be turned on before we unveil the cake. I can provide it for you if you don’t have the means to procure one yourself.

And finally, two days later, a person identifying as “Autumn Marie” visited Phillips’s shop and requested a cake featuring a pentagram. According to ADF, “Phillips believes that person was Autumn Scardina.”

Now the state’s civil rights commission is charging Phillips with illegal discrimination. It’s as if the state is giving a finger to the Supreme Court.

Phillips and the Alliance Defending Freedom are suing the state, and thanks to ADF’s deep pockets, they will probably win again. But this just goes to show how petty the left can be in power. If not for ADF, how would a Christian small businessman like Jack Phillips defend himself?

Andrew Walker of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission explores the meaning of this latest move. He makes a strong point that “the attempt by progressives to make an example of Phillips is a sign of civic sickness.” He means that there are ways to deal with these conflicts that don’t require going to the courts — as long as people don’t demand that they get their way in every instance. He brings up an interesting case of this happening recently to the ERLC. Excerpt:

A few months ago, our creative director responsible for branding the ERLC’s logo on various clothing items such as polo shirts or jackets was informed by a nationally-known brand that the ERLC’s mission did not align with their corporate values, and we were prohibited from putting our logo on their clothing. To put it bluntly, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention, was unabashedly discriminated against.

When our creative director walked into my office to notify me of this, my first response was to smile. Why? Because the ERLC had been the victim of discrimination, and I knew an opportunity like this meant the ERLC could pursue the moral high ground. What progressivism does to dissenters, we would not do to them.

I’m not going to identify what the particular brand was that discriminated against the ERLC, because the ERLC is not looking to score points against this particular company nor are we looking to file any type of lawsuit.

Another option was available: Avail ourselves of the hundreds or thousands of other companies that would be willing to take our money in exchange for their product. We did.

Read the whole thing.  Bravo, ERLC! It could have made a big public case out of this, but the ERLC decided to live by its own principles.

Progressives could take a lesson from the Southern Baptists on how to be civil.

Here’s a political lesson from a leading Evangelical:

This is surreal. Apparently the state-sponsored vendetta against this man will never end. Sadly, if you want to know why so many evangelicals were willing to hold their noses and vote for Trump, look no further than this outrageous government overreach. https://t.co/9yfyAECDdd

— Thomas S. Kidd (@ThomasSKidd) August 15, 2018

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