Director, Commonwealth Policy Center

Jack Phillips has been compared to a perpetrator of the holocaust by a government official. So what's Jack's offense? He declined to create a special order wedding cake for a same-sex marriage ceremony. In 2014, Colorado Civil Rights Commissioner Diann Rice said that freedom of religion has been used to justify all kinds of discrimination. She insinuated that Phillips was using his freedom of religion to "hurt others."  What's interesting is that Phillip's father fought in World War II against the Nazis and witnessed the aftermath of the holocaust. When Phillips was compared to a Nazi he said “I don’t have words for it. But it’s wrong.” Of course, stigmatizing someone's religious and moral convictions is wrong.  The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Jack Phillips case. And the rights of religious freedom and living by one's moral convictions hang in the balance.