Jimmy Kimmel Compares Christian Baker Not Participating In Same-Sex Wedding to Anti-Semitism
Late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel responded to a court ruling last week in favor of a Christian baker not being forced to participate in a same-sex wedding by likening it to refusing to serve Jewish people.
Last Wednesday, a California judge held that Cathy Miller, owner of Tastries Bakery in Bakersfield, has a First Amendment right not to create a wedding cake for the same-sex ceremony, the Associated Press reported.
Like other high profile cases involving bakers in Colorado and Oregon, Miller’s objection is not in serving those who identify as homosexuals, but in using her artistic talents specifically for a wedding.
“I am very happy to serve everything from my cases to anybody,” she said. “But I cannot be a part of a celebration that goes against my Lord and Savior.”
Kern County Superior Court Judge David Lampe found her stance constitutionally protected.
“The State asks this court to compel Miller to use her talents to design and create a cake she has not yet conceived with the knowledge that her work will be displayed in celebration of a marital union her religion forbids,” he wrote in siding with Miller. “For this court to force such compliance would do violence to the essentials of Free Speech guaranteed under the First Amendment.”
On his program on Friday, Kimmel mocked the ruling, noting a similar case is currently before the U.S. Supreme Court and employed a skit to illustrate why he thought the California judge is in error.
Kimmel plays a waiter in the skit and before serving his patrons, he asks if any of them are gay.
A woman responds in the affirmative, prompting Kimmel to inform her, “Okay, then I should let you know that you won’t be enjoying any of our signature salads tonight.”
He goes on to explain, “Our salad chef today is Tony, and he believes homosexuality is a sin, so he won’t be creating any of our salads for you” because, as Kimmel states, ‘it violates his religious beliefs.'”
Kimmel goes on to inform a Jewish customer at the same table he can’t have the lasagna because it “is not for Jews tonight.”
Finally, he informs a gentleman wishing to order steak, he won’t be able to, because the chef is Hindu and cows are sacred to him.
Kimmel then tells all the patrons at the table to leave the restaurant.
Unlike the late-night host’s skit none of the bakers in question is refusing to serve homosexuals, they just are unwilling to create a uniquely designed cake for the wedding itself.
The Daily Signal’s Kelsey Harkness suggested Kimmel do his homework before making fun of these people because of their beliefs. She linked to a video featuring Jack Phillips, who was sued by a gay couple after he informed them he would not make a cake for the wedding ceremony.
“I want to live my life as though Jesus Christ were with me all the time, because He is. But I want to live in a way that honors Him in everything that I do,” he told The Daily Signal.
When he opened his location over 20 years ago in Lakewood, he named it Masterpiece Cakeshop, which is a reference to the biblical passage Ephesians 2:10.
The verse reads, “For we are all God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.”
Phillips lost his case at the Colorado Court of Appeals, so he took it to the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in December.
In arguing in the favor of the First Amendment rights of Phillips to decline the business, Trump administration Solicitor General Noel Francisco used the analogy of an African American artist being compelled to craft a cross that he knew was to be used for a Ku Klux Klan rally, according to The Washington Post.
Court watchers believe the ruling will likely be 5-4, with Justice Anthony Kennedy providing the swing vote either for or against Phillips.
The outcome in the case, which is expected to be handed down in June, will also decide the fate of the other bakers’ First Amendment claims.
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