We recently received this email from a listener of Wacky Wednesday radio show: “I am a baker who makes customized cakes and designs, I have a customer requesting for me to make ‘zodiac themed’ desserts. Is this an order I should decline? Is it a sin for me to decorate cookies in a practice that I don't participate in for a paying customer?”This is a great question!
Whether or not to bake zodiac-themed desserts is a matter of conscience that closely resembles the issues facing several bakers such as Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop who was sued twice – once for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding and a second time for refusing to bake a cake celebrating a gender transition. In those cases, he successfully argued that creating these cakes was the equivalent of endorsing practices which would be a violation of their faith.
Your case is similar.
As you know, participation in astrology is forbidden by the Church because it’s considered to be a form of divination. If someone came to your shop asking you to bake a cake in the form of a Ouija board, or decorated with runes, would you feel comfortable creating this?
You could argue that creating such a product with these images has nothing to do with actually endorsing these practices. After all, it’s the customer who’s celebrating these practices, not the baker. However, a counter-argument would be that whether you wished to do so or not, creating desserts with these images does result in encouraging the practices, not by you directly, but by the people who placed the order. Are you comfortable with this?
This is why I believe that the decision to create these desserts must come from your individual convictions and where you wish to draw the line when it comes to upholding the truth and your religious beliefs.
I would take this to prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to guide me into making the right decision not just for myself, but for His Kingdom here on earth.
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