With the United States Supreme Court deciding last week that it will hear the case over the controversy, the LGBT community and its advocates have hurled two death threats at Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips.

“[You don’t deserve to live,” reads one threat, according to Fox News. “Christians should be thrown into the Roman Colosseum with lions.”

And the death threats have been just the tip of the iceberg, as Phillips claims that he is incessantly getting crude phone calls and emails that he has to intercept to in order to protect his family.

“In all of this – the threats against me or disparaging comments – the worst part is that I have to answer the phone so they’re not threatening my wife or my daughter when they pick it up,” Phillips shared with Fox News, “They don’t wait to see who’s on the phone. You pick up the phone – they’re already talking.”

Standing for truth

World-renowned evangelist Franklin Graham made his support of the Christian baker loud and clear to his social media following as the controversy continues to heat up in the wake of SCOTUS announcing it will preside over the case.

“Jack Phillips has been told that he ‘doesn’t deserve to live’ and that ‘Christians should be thrown into the Roman Colosseum with lions,’” Graham wrote to his 5.7 million Facebook friends on Friday. “Wow. This grandfather and bakery owner from Colorado has some tough times since he refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple because of his Christian beliefs.”

He relayed to his followers the steep price Phillips has had to pay to stay true to his Christian convictions.

“He’s lost business, had vile reviews posted online about him, received harassing phone calls, and even received death threats,” Graham continued in his post that received more than 31,000 likes. “It can be costly to stand up for God’s truth.”

The president of the Billy Graham Evangelist Association (BGEA) then cited Scripture to encourage Christians to support the baker in the midst of his persecution at the hands of the LGBT community.

“The Bible tells us that ‘all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted’ (2 Timothy 3:12),” the younger Graham recounted from the Bible. “Be in prayer as the Supreme Court has announced they will be hearing this case.”

Handling diversity with honor

When sharing about his latest difficulties over the matter, Phillips has done his best to protect those around him from the backlash that he continues to incur after treating the homosexual couple with nothing but respect.

“Phillips added that he also tries to shield the other employees at the bakery from negative comments directed at him –at times becoming emotional as he spoke about his employees and family,” Fox News’ Kaitlyn Schallhorn reported. “Phillips said he didn’t refuse the couple service and offered to sell them anything in the store. But when it came to actively participating in the couple’s wedding, that’s where Phillips drew the line.”

Yet the “offended homosexual couple” has contended that their so-called “right” to equal treatment should be guaranteed under the law – an argument that will be heard in the nation’s highest court, with oral arguments expected to be heard in the fall term of SCOTUS later this year.

“This has always been about more than a cake,” contended David Mullins – one of the homosexual men who attempted to purchase the wedding cake – in a statement he gave on the matter last week, according to Fox News. “Businesses should not be allowed to violate the law and discriminate against us because of who we are and who we love.”

His “husband,” Craig, said in the statement that he and his partner are “disappointed” that SCOTUS decided to move forward with the case later this year.

A civil rights issue … really?

Following the decades-long trend, those who proclaim to champion civil rights have made those out who oppose same-sex “marriage” to be discriminatory villains – often likening Christians to Nazi Germans.

Phillips shared that he was deeply grieved when Colorado Civil Rights Commissioner Diann Rice made a disturbing comment over the matter – likening him – and other Christian business owners living out their faith – to Holocaust perpetrators.

“Freedom of religion and religion has been used to justify all kinds of discrimination throughout history – whether it be slavery, whether it be the Holocaust,” Rice stated in a brief, according to Fox News. “I mean, we can list hundreds of situations where freedom of religion has been used to justify discrimination.”

The baker was reduced to tears when discussing the analogy, saying how his father – who was severely wounded in combat during World War II – did not let his injury keep him from being part of a team that helped liberate a Nazi concentration camp in Europe.

“For her to compare standing for my faith and not making a cake to Hitler’s atrocities just is unspeakable,” Phillips impressed to Fox.

What’s really going on …

Representing Phillips in the case, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorney Kristen Waggoner maintained that Rice’s comments were “deeply offensive and biased.” She went on to insist that the case and others like it are more about silencing Christians than selling wedding cakes.

“The marginalization of Christians in America today – removing them from their jobs, banning them or purging them from entire professions – that’s a step toward physical persecution,” Waggoner asserted Thursday from her findings on the issue, according to Fox News. “You see that kind of marginalization in other countries, too. It’s a more polite type of persecution, but nonetheless, it is. It’s forcing someone to choose between their faith and making a living and supporting their family in their vocation.”

What really happened?

Back in the summer of 2012, Phillips described what actually took place in his bakery after he approached two men browsing through his wedding books.

“We’re here to talk about wedding cakes, and it’s for our wedding,” the two men told Phillips, according to his account given to CBN News a few years back.

Phillips then explained – as politely as possible – that he did not bake themed cakes for homosexual weddings.

“I apologized and said, ‘I don’t do cakes for same-sex weddings,'” the business owner responded.

When the men barked back, “What?” Phillips assured them that he was not declining them business because of their sexual preference, and that he would sell them a number of other items.

“I’ll sell you birthday cakes, shower cakes, cookies, brownies – anything else,” the Christian man insisted. “I just don’t do cakes for same-sex weddings.”

The other side of the issue argues that Phillips had no right to decline his services because of his sincerely held religious beliefs.

“The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a complaint against Phillips and his Masterpiece Cakeshop, alleging violation of Colorado’s public accommodation law,” CBN News reported. “Gay rights advocates say that Phillips discriminated against the two men.”

However, according to religious liberty advocates, including Dr. Ryan Anderson – who serves as the William E. Simon senior research fellow in American Principles and Public Policy at the Heritage Foundation – vendors such as Phillips must be permitted to exercise their freedom of speech, conscience and religion. He maintains that with LGBT activists pushing their anti-discrimination laws, Americans are seeing a sharp decline in the number of conservative wedding vendors across the country.

“Part of the problem is that liberals are simply calling anything they disagree with ‘discrimination,'” Simon wrote last week, according to CBN News.

This trend has been witnessed by numerous media outlets.

“In case after case, bakers have had no problem designing cakes for gay customers for every other occasion,” the Daily Signal reported. “It’s just that an exceedingly small number can’t in good conscience use their talents to help celebrate same-sex weddings by baking a cake topped with two grooms or two brides – or, as in this case, with rainbow filling.”