A Christian man who owns a Mississippi bakery has criticized the state’s new religious freedom bill which he believes authorizes discrimination against the LGBT community.
Christian Today reports that Mitchell Moore, who owns Campbell’s Bakery
in Jackson, identifies as a Republican and a Christian. However, rather
surprisingly to many, Moore is not in favor of the new law signed by
Gov. Phil Bryant which would allow religious organizations, businesses,
and individuals to refuse service to LGBT people if they feel serving
someone who is lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender violates their
“sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions.”
In an interview with NPR, Moore stated, "I don't think that there is
such a thing as a deeply held religious belief that you should not serve
people. I am here to bake cakes and to sell those cakes. I'm not here
to decide arbitrarily who deserves my cake and who doesn't. That's not
what I do. That's not my job.”
"So leaving aside the stupidity of passing it because it decriminalizes
discrimination – which, that really is kind of the biggest issue – but I
can actually say I think the law of unintended consequences is going to
come back to bite the people who signed this bill," Moore continued.
"If it is my sincerely held religious belief that I shouldn't serve
them, then I can do that. And I can hide behind that language. But that
language is so vague it opens a Pandora's box. And you can't shut it
again,” he said.
Although Moore identifies himself as a “deeply Christian man,” many of
Moore’s fellow Christians don’t share his stance on this issue, such as
an Illinois couple who refused to host a same-sex wedding at their bed and breakfast recently.
"There is no sincerely held religious belief to think that I am better
than other people – to think that my sin is different than other
people," Moore concluded.
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