This is unbelievable! Those were the first words of Franklin Graham’s keyboard when he heard about an Oregon judge’s ruling against Aaron and Melissa Klein, the Christian bakery owners the state prosecuted for refusing to participate in a same-sex marriage by baking a wedding cake.
“Friday, Brad Avakian, Oregon’s Bureau of Labor & Industries Commissioner, upheld the ruling that the Kleins have to pay the lesbian couple $135,000 for a long list of alleged damages including: ‘acute loss of confidence,’ ‘high blood pressure,’ ‘impaired digestion,’ ‘loss of appetite,’ ‘migraine headaches,’ ‘pale and sick at home after work,’ ‘resumption of smoking habit,’ ‘weight gain,’ and ‘worry,’ Graham rattled off.
“Give me a break,” he continued. “In my opinion, this couple should pay the Kleins $135,000 for all they’ve been through! Even more outrageous is that Avakian has also now ordered the Kleins to ‘cease and desist’ from speaking publicly about not wanting to bake cakes for same-sex weddings based on their Christian beliefs. This is an outright attack on their #freedomofspeech.”
As Graham sees it, a senior attorney with the The Heritage Foundation was absolutely right when he said, “It is exactly this kind of oppressive persecution by government officials that led the pilgrims to America.”
Graham is asking Christians to pray for the Klein’s as they appeal the ruling and for other Christians experiencing discrimination because of their faith right here in “the land of the free.”
