Counsel for Masterpiece Cakeshop Explains What’s at Stake in Supreme Court Decision

For several years, Christians in the United States have debated whether they should bake cakes for same-sex weddings. Should bakers be considered artists with freedom of speech? Does baking for a wedding imply endorsement? Is the same true, for example, of photographers? Would the Jesus who consorted with sinners—to the point where some considered him a glutton and drunkard—bake the cake as an act of love for sinners?

All these questions concern the Christian prudence of this decision. But even as Christians disagree on what they’d do personally, it’s a whole other question to say the government should compel Christians to bake the cake, even if that decision would violate their conscience. And that’s why the U.S. Supreme Court case Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, argued last December 5 and soon to be decided, is so important.

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I’m joined on this episode of The Gospel Coalition Podcast by Kristen Waggoner, lead counsel for Masterpiece Cakeshop. Waggoner serves as senior vice president of the U.S. legal division and general counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom. Waggoner oversees the U.S. legal division, a team of 60 attorneys and staff who engage in litigation, public advocacy, and legislative support. In this interview we discuss Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips, why his actions are different from denying service to ethnic minorities, how his case compares to ones involving Arlene’s Flowers and National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, and more.

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Collin Hansen serves as vice president for content and editor in chief of The Gospel Coalition, as well as executive director of The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. He hosts the Gospelbound podcast and has written and contributed to many books, most recently Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation and Rediscover Church: Why the Body of Christ Is Essential. He has published with the New York Times and the Washington Post and offered commentary for CNN, Fox News, NPR, BBC, ABC News, and PBS NewsHour. He edited Our Secular Age: Ten Years of Reading and Applying Charles Taylor and The New City Catechism Devotional, among other books. He is an adjunct professor at Beeson Divinity School, where he also co-chairs the advisory board.