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Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian waged political jihad against the Christian owners of a bakery---Sweet Cakes by Melissa---because of their biblical belief on marriage.
Now it's Avakian who has a problem.
And.
A radio station programmed with far Left, progressive and atheist talk shows has suddenly canceled their format and gone to 24-hour Christmas music, with a new format beginning in January.
Joy to the world!
Brad Avakian, former Labor Commissioner of Oregon, went for the throat of Aaron and Melissa Klein when they declined to bake a "wedding" cake for a lesbian couple.
Avakian brought the Christian couple to trial, where they were ordered to pay a $135,000 fine for "emotional damages" to the lesbians.
He also launched a very public and ugly assault on the Christian couple, resulting in homosexual activists protesting in front of the bakery, boycotting it and threatening others who would do business with the Christian couple.
This led to closing the bakery...and ultimately forced the couple to shut down their business entirely.
After all this, Avakian told the press, "The goal is never to shut down a business. The goal is to rehabilitate."
Rehabilitate? Is the state's role to "rehabilitate" Christians? Apparently, it was in Avakian's world.
Voters in one of the most far Left, liberal, progressive states in America must have felt differently than Avakian.
Oregon voters elected a Christian---Republican Dennis Richardson---as Secretary of State---thus defeating Avakian who ran for the office.
It's the first time a Republican has been elected to a statewide office in Oregon since 2002.
The Kleins are represented by First Liberty, one of the largest Christian law firms in America. They are appealing the fines.
Hiram Sasser, with First Liberty, says, "We will never know if Mr. Avakian's unprecedented attack on religious liberty played a role in the election" but "Perhaps this will serve as a point of reflection for government leaders that the people of Oregon and indeed most of Americans believe in tolerance and respect and the dignity of each person to live their lives according to the dictates of their own conscience."
Across the country, WXXM 92.1 FM, in Madison, Wisconsin, got a message from the people as well.
The people stopped listening to the far Left, progressive, atheist programming. Even in far Left, progressive Madison.
The Wisconsin State Journal reports that "Liberal Talk 92.1" will now become "92.1 Best FM"---"Madison's Home for the Holidays."
This station has been the base for the atheist Freedom From Religion Foundation organization, and others.
Founders and co-presidents (husband and wife) Annie Gaylor and Dan Barker, a former evangelical pastor and children's music writer, say they were stunned.
"We opened up the Wisconsin State Journal the morning after the election to read the remarkable announcement that progressive talk had been banished forthwith on 92.1 FM and replaced with around-the-clock Christmas music," they said in a statement.
Their eggnog was even more bitter because the Barker/Gaylors have not been a big fan of Baby Jesus.
You will recall, that they have been the force behind Nativity scenes being removed across the country in Christmas's past.
In fact, they were involved in the attack on Baby Jesus in Olympia a year or two ago. They also successfully filed a lawsuit against Portland Public Schools forbidding school choirs to sing Christmas songs at the Catholic Grotto---a tradition going back decades.
In Indiana, where Mike Pence was governor, they filed a federal suit against a school district to forbid a brief appearance of Baby Jesus in a school drama production.
They make their living filing suits against any and all expressions of Christianity---especially at Christmas.
The station is not claiming any religious conversion, but they are claiming "nobody was listening."
That may be the sweetest part of the story. If nobody is listening to the cry of the atheists in Madison---of all places---and voting for an evangelical Christian for Secretary of State in Oregon---maybe, just maybe...
To hear that Silent Night is replacing the noise of the atheists is particularly meaningful.
Now instead of the battle cry of "separation of God and State," perhaps the people of Madison can experience a month or so of "peace on Earth...good will to man."
And the rest of us can sing along with the former atheist programmed radio station in Madison:
Joy to the World , the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.
Joy to the World, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.
He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love
Be Blessed.