Courage to Stand: An evening with Jack Phillips and Joe Kennedy

Aug 30, 2018 | 0 comments

Join us Saturday, October 20th in Hershey for our 2018 Friends of the Family banquet featuring Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop, and joined by special guest, Coach Joe Kennedy.

Individual tickets: $60 each
Includes dinner.
Click here to purchase tickets.

Sponsorships are also available.
Click here to become a sponsor.

Featuring: Jack Phillips, Masterpiece Cakeshop

Jack Phillips has operated his Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado since 1993.

In July 2012, two men came into Jack’s cakeshop requesting a custom wedding cake celebrating their same-sex marriage. Jack politely declined, saying that he could not design cakes for same-sex weddings, but offered to design them cakes for other occasions or to sell them anything else in his shop. The men filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which ordered Jack to either violate his faith by designing the custom cake or stop designing wedding cakes entirely, 40% of Jack’s business.

Jack Phillips went to court and his case made it to the US Supreme Court. On June 4, 2018, in a 7-2 landmark decision, the court reversed the state’s decision to punish Jack for acting consistently with his religious beliefs about marriage.

Now, unbelievably, the Colorado Civil Rights commission is coming after Jack Phillips again. Jack serves all customers but can’t design custom cakes with messages that violate his convictions, no matter who is requesting the cake. The state of Colorado will not acknowledge this and is disregarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s vindication of Jack.

Special Guest: Coach Joe Kennedy

Joe Kennedy was an assistant high school football coach for the Bremerton School District in Washington State who made it a practice to go the 50-yard-line, kneel down and pray after each game. He began the practice not long after he was hired in 2008 and, at first, he prayed alone, but like-minded players from both teams began joining him after the games.

The prayers continued until 2015, when the district suddenly ordered him to stop. Despite initially obeying the order, Kennedy believed it violated his freedoms of speech and religion and did it again, a decision that eventually cost him his job.  His appeals in the courts have thus far been denied, but he is now seeking a hearing before the US Supreme Court in defense of his First Amendment rights. Coach Kennedy said he simply wants his job back and the ability to live consistently with the tenets of his faith.

Tickets and Sponsorships are available!
Saturday, October 20, 2018
Hershey, PA | 6:30pm

Register online or call 717-545-0600.