It's Not Just a Wedding Cake

A few weeks ago a friend of mine asked me if I, as a Chrisitan would bake a wedding cake for a homosexual couple because it's "just a cake".  I told him I wouldn't, but it's not the reason you may think. 

Yes, a wedding cake is just a cake.  It's made of flour, eggs, sugar, and decorated in a way that can be sculpted in ways that are simply amazing.  Then it is cut by the bride and groom and eaten by the guests.  Pictures are taken of it, and a ceremony of the bride and groom feeding each other is done.  That's about it.  You know, thinking of it, I don't even remember what my cake even looked like.  To be honest I can't remember most of the night either.  So what's the big deal then? 

Well, for me its a much deeper issue than just cake and causes more trouble than we realize for Christianity and not from homosexuals, but from the Lord Himself.  It's a matter of conscience, not ours, but of our weaker brother.  Here we go to 1 Corinthians 8:1-13.  What was happening here is that people were buying good cheap meat at the pagan temple that was sacrificed to idols.  These were choice cuts at a really reasonable price.  Some Chrisitans were buying it because it was good cheap meat, and some were not because they believed it became evil and would defile their conscience (1 Corinthians 8:7).

According to 1 Corinthians 8:4 says concerning eating things offered to idols, that an idol is nothing in this world, and that in verse 8 it says, "food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we better, nor if we don't eat are we the worse." Since idols are not really anything, than the food sacrificed to them is not anything either.  It doesn't draw us closer or further away from the one true living God.  Food in and of itself cannot help you keep your salvation, nor take it away because its meat sacrificed to an idol that's not anything either.  But if we go on if the weaker brother's conscience says, "do not eat meat sacrificed to idols" and he sees a stronger brother eat meat (which doesn't bother his conscience), it would encourage the weaker brother to violate his conscience which would be sin.

So let's bring this to what I am talking about.  Let's say I am a Christian baker and a homosexual couple comes in and asks me to bake a wedding cake.  Since gay "marriage" is not really marriage in the eyes of God and is nothing (like an idol), then a cake made for a gay wedding (like meat sacrificed) is in an of itself not evil either.  I won't lose my salvation if I make it. and according to 1 Corinthians 8:9 I would have liberty to do so.  Follow me?

But, lets say that a new believing Christian really believes gay "marriage" is wrong and his conscience says we should not even consent to go to a homosexual wedding because it's evil and that no Christian should ever consent to be associated with something like that. But let's say he hears that you, a long-time Christian believer is baking a cake for them, and then says, "Well, Frank is baking a cake for them and maybe gay 'marriage' is not bad. You, as the baker, caused the weaker Christian to abandon his conscience and sin.  1 Corinthians 8:9-13 says then that not only do I sin against my weaker brother, but I sin against Christ as well. 

But what is the harm really of making a weaker brother stumble?  Jesus said in Mark 9:42:

"But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea."

Let me clear that up.  It would be better for you to die a grusome, agonizing death than to stumble a little Christian, even the most insignificant one.  Drowning to a Jew was the worst form of death imaginable. So in a sense, it would be better for you to lose your baking business than to stumble a weaker Chrisitan.  That's my point. 

Back to reality.  Let's face it, this country is full of weak Christians.  When it comes to bible knowledge, discernment, and keeping things in context with historical/gramatical hermenutics, there are very few.  The bible knowledge of the majority of American "Christians" is pretty shallow, and is made up of sermonettes, morning devotionals, and TBN.  So it would be benneficial rather to not bake the cake in the first place and offend the non-believer, than to bake the cake and offend the weaker believer. 

I hope that cleared up any confuison you might have had.  It's not that I don't want to see people unhappy or ruin their day. I just don't want to offend more important people to me, which is my brother, and my Lord.