Director, Commonwealth Policy Center

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger  warned prior to becoming Pope Benedict, “we are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and .. has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.” This dictatorship of relativism landed a heavy blow to  Aaron and Melissa Klein—bakery owners in Oregon who lost their bakery and were fined $137,000 for refusing to bake a cake for a gay wedding. The Klein's appealed to their religious convictions and couldn't in good conscience offer their services to an event they believed to be sacrilegious.  While the fine is inordinate to the supposed crime, the latest news about the Kleins is more troubling in what it says about the state of religious freedom and the dictatorship of relativism that threatens it.