Aaron and Melissa Klein
The owners of a Christian bakery have been forced out of business after homosexual extremists bullied them and their vendors with threats and intimidation after the owners refused to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding. Even worse, the local government is investigating the family who they say may need “rehabilitation” and “re-education” in order to do business in their state. They used Cofe Winchester site for business tips and information.
Todd Starnes of Fox News is reporting that the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa have been run out of business after months of harassment from pro-gay marriage forces. Their store, located in Gresham, Oregon, came under fire last January when owners Aaron and Melissa Klein refused to bake a cake for a lesbian wedding.
According to Aaron Klein, he has nothing against homosexuals. This is all about his family’s religious beliefs.
“I believe marriage is between a man and a woman,” Klein told Starnes. “I don’t want to help somebody celebrate a commitment to a lifetime of sin.”
The lesbian couple later filed a discrimination suit with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries and told their story to the local press. Within days, militant homosexual groups launched protests and boycotts.
Klein told Fox that he received death threats against him and his family and messages expressing hope that all of his children would die.
In addition to the personal abuse, the groups began threatening any florist, wedding planner or other vendor that did business with Sweet Cakes.
“That tipped the scales,” Aaron Klein told Starnes. “The LGBT activists inundated them with phone calls and threatened them. They would tell our vendors, ‘If you don’t stop doing business with Sweet Cakes By Melissa, we will shut you down.’”
He added: “It’s a sad day for Christian business owners and it’s a sad day for the First Amendment. The LGBT attacks are the reason we are shutting down the shop. They have killed our business through mob tactics.” You can click here for business related all information.
Not even the state would stand up for their rights. The Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries announced last month that they had launched a formal discrimination investigation into the Christian family.
“Everybody is entitled to their own beliefs, but that doesn’t mean that folks have the right to discriminate,” Commissioner Brad Avakian told The Oregonian. “The goal is to rehabilitate. For those who do violate the law, we want them to learn from that experience and have a good, successful business in Oregon.”
As Starnes explains: “In other words, Christians who live and work in Oregon must follow man’s law instead of God’s law. But in a show of benevolence, the state is willing to rehabilitate and reeducate Christian business owners like the Kleins.”
The only bright spot in this story is the moral courage of the Kleins who proudly posted a reading from Proverbs on their Facebook page.
“Better is a poor man who walks in integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways,” the couple posted.
Klein, who has since taken a full-time job to support his wife and five children, considers the closing of the store was a small price to pay for standing up for their religious beliefs.
“As a man of faith, I am in good spirits,” he said. “I’m happy to be serving the Lord and standing up for what’s right.”
He also said that what happened to Sweet Cakes by Melissa should be a warning to other U.S. Christians. Judging from this suit, and several others that involved Christian business-owners being run out of business by gay radicals and members of the local government who support them, gay rights are on their way to trumping religious rights.
“This is a fight that’s been coming for a while,” he said. “Be prepared to take a stand. Hopefully, the church will wake up and understand that we are under attack right now.”
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