The Weekly is a rundown of news by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission highlighting the week’s top news stories from the public square and providing commentary on the big issues of our day.

Supreme Court Hears Major Religious Liberty Case

On Tuesday the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments is one of most important free speech and religious liberty cases of the year.

In the case of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the Court will decide whether the First Amendment is violated when a state punishes a citizen for refusing, for reasons of religious conscience, to create a cake that celebrates a same-sex wedding. (ERLC joined other Baptist, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim denominational entities, colleges and universities, legal associations, and individuals in filing an amicus brief on behalf of Phillips.)

Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, declined to create a cake for a same-sex wedding because he believes it would be sinful to participate in celebrating a same-sex wedding. Despite the fact that another bakery readily created the cake the couple wanted, they brought a sexual-orientation-discrimination claim against Phillips. A state civil rights commission found Jack Phillips had violated Colorado law, and prohibited him from creating cakes for any wedding unless he also created cakes for same-sex weddings.

Phillips appealed to Colorado’s appellate court, which upheld the commission’s ruling, and the Colorado Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, granted review of his free speech and free exercise claims and heard oral arguments on December 5.

The conservative justices appeared to be sympathetic to Phillips claim. For example, Justice Alito noted that according to the state of Colorado, a baker who supports same-sex marriage can refuse to create a cake with a message that is opposed to same-sex marriage. “But when the tables are turned and you have the baker who opposes same-sex marriage,” said Alito, “that baker may be compelled to create a cake that expresses approval of same-sex marriage.”

The Court’s liberal justices, however, appeared to side with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. Justice Sotomayor compared attitudes against same-sex marriage to animus against interracial marriage. She also implied that anyone who disagreed with same-sex marriage shouldn’t work in the wedding industry:

It’s not denigrating someone by saying, as I mentioned earlier, to say: If you choose to participate in our community in a public way, your choice, you can choose to sell cakes or not. You can choose to sell cupcakes or not, whatever it is you choose to sell, you have to sell it to everyone who knocks on your door, if you open your door to everyone.

Justice Kennedy, who is expected to be the swing vote in this case, expressed concern that, based on statements made by commissioners, the Colorado commission was expressing hostility to religion.

“[T]olerance is essential in a free society,” said Kennedy, “And tolerance is most meaningful when it’s mutual. It seems to me that the state in its position here has been neither tolerant nor respectful of Mr. Phillips’ religious beliefs.”

You can read the transcript of the oral arguments here.

This week on ERLC podcasts: Daniel Darling talks to Marvin Olasky, editor-in-chief of World Magazine, about journalism and the pursuit of truth. On the Capitol Conversations podcast, Matt Hawkins and Travis Wussow talk to Jose Ocampo, a “Dreamer” and DACA recipient. And on the new ERLC podcast series, “How to Handle,” Trillia Newbell talks to Lore Ferguson Wilbert about broken families.

Other Issues

American Culture

The Rebirth of America's Pro-Natalist Movement
Emma Green, The Atlantic

Activists on the right and left want policies that will reverse the country’s baby bust. But the broader culture—and Congress—don’t seem to care.

Free-flowing alcohol is drying up at office holiday parties amid America's sex abuse reckoning
Peter Weber, The Week

Vox Media isn't having an open bar at its holiday party this year, instead giving each employee two drink tickets, HuffPost reported Friday, and that seems to be part of a larger trend this year as companies try to mitigate the risk of unwanted sexual advances or misadventures among coworkers.

Millennial Evangelicals on Israel: ‘Meh’
Bob Smietana, Christianity Today

http://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2017/december/us-evangelicals-support-israel-peace-survey-millennial-meh.html

The Consumerist Church of Fitness Classes
Zan Romanoff, The Atlantic

Gyms provide ritual and community, serving as a sort of religion. They also promote values American culture already worships—capitalism and overwork.

Supreme Court allows full enforcement of Trump travel ban affecting residents of 6 mostly Muslim countries
Associated Press

Supreme Court allows full enforcement of Trump travel ban affecting residents of six mostly Muslim countries.

Bioethics

Forced to Bake a Cake Today, Assist Suicide Tomorrow
Wesley J. Smith, The Corner

The law today generally protects medical conscience in the areas of abortion and assisted suicide, although not pharmacists dispensing contraception. But those protections are under intellectual assault in bioethics in preparation for eventual attempts to change the law.

Christianity and Culture

Evangelical vs. Born Again: A Survey of What Americans Say and Believe Beyond Politics
Jeremy Weber, Christianity Today

Less than half who claim either label have evangelical beliefs. Most likely: African Americans.

Family Issues

Five Facts About Today’s Single Fathers
Alysse ElHage, Institute for Family Studies

Single fathers are more likely to be divorced and less likely to be in poverty, compared to single mothers.

International Issues

How Should Christians View Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital?
Robert Nicholson, Providence

Considering principles and values as well prudential considerations of the volatile region’s political realities, how ought Christians to evaluate recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital?

Austria legalizes same-sex marriage
Emily Schultheis, Politico

The country’s existing laws are discriminatory, its Constitutional Court said Tuesday.

Lawyers call Canadian court case turning point for religious freedom
Deborah Gyapong, Catholic News Service

Religious freedom in Canada is facing a “watershed moment” and may be “on an abyss of a revolutionary change,” argued lawyers in a Supreme Court of Canada case involving a Christian university’s proposed law school.

Religious Liberty

Judge to hear arguments in spat over religious headstone law
Associated Press

A federal judge is weighing whether to scrap a state law barring private religious cemeteries from selling headstones after the Catholic Archdiocese of Newark and the state clashed on Wednesday in court over the legislation.

Abortion taught conservative Christians to argue for minority rights — as they’re doing today in Masterpiece Cakeshop.
Andrew R. Lewis, Washington Post

When is a wedding cake not just a cake, but a statement of profound religious beliefs?

Sexuality Issues

Supreme Court lets stand Texas ruling on gay spouse benefits
Will Weissert, Associated Press

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday let stand a Texas ruling that gay spouses may not be entitled to government-subsidized workplace benefits — a potential victory for social conservatives hoping to chip away at 2015's legalization of same-sex marriage.