Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look, and an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

On a Saturday morning in 2012, sitting on my porch reading an actual newspaper, I first learned about a Denver baker named Jack Phillips.

A gay couple, having been, quote-unquote, married in a different state, asked Jack, the owner of

masterpiece cake shop, to custom design a cake for their so-called same-sex wedding.

Jack offered them service in any cake in his store that was already made.

What he could not do, he said, was use his creative talent to say a message that violated

his conscience, something he knew to be untrue.

Well, to say that a lot happened in the years since, is to put it mildly, an understatement.

He was harassed by the state of Colorado, especially the Civil Rights Commission, for years.

He was slandered online. He was subjected to death threats, not only against him, but also his

family. He was sued, not just only against him, but also his family.

He was sued, not just by the state, but also by a man who claimed to be a woman and repeatedly

ask him to bake perverted and disgusting cakes.

In the end, his case was pivotal in advancing the rights of conscience, suppressing state

hostility to religion, and, yes, a beautiful part of the story,

attracting many people to Christ. But I also remember back then a whole chorus of voices,

many even Christian leaders, telling Jack to just bake the cake. Some of them even said

Jesus would have baked the cake. Jack was accused of hate and tolerance and bigotry, but he stood instead courageously,

even in the face of great criticism, not just from the state of Colorado, but from his own brothers and sisters in Christ.

And thank God he did.

Recently, in an event that was hosted by Colorado Christian University and featured the brilliant Ion Hershey-A-A-L-Lee, one of those who was inspired by Jack's story, I asked Jack Phillips and Kristen Wagoner, his longtime attorney and now CEO of the Alliance Defending Freedom, what he thinks now as he looks back to then when so many people told him to bake the cake.

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