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| Protesters gathered inside the state capitol building in St. Paul, Minnesota, to protest against the upcoming vote by the Minnesota House of Representatives to put an anti-gay marriage amendment on the 2012 election ballot. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
It is strange of a country which runs so high about Freedom of speech such measures can be taken. Nobody obliges those who want to marry to go to that specific church or to have only that specific minister to wed them or to perform any church service. Normally you would think in the
United States everybody is free to chose his own church and to go to any church of whatever denomination.
So, I wonder what can be the problem and why ministers who have a certain faith and want to keep to their faith should be punished not willing to marry certain people. Why do they not go to another church?
The two ordained ministers Donald and Evelyn
Knapp, who own the Hitching Post Wedding Chapel
in Coeur d’Alene are at risk of being prosecuted attorney Jeremy
Tedesco told Todd Starnes.
Clearly those wanting to go in patrimony should know that the wedding chapel is registered as a “religious corporation”
limited to performing “one-man-one-woman marriages as defined by the
Holy Bible.”
However, the chapel is also a for-profit business and city
officials said that means the owners must comply with the local non-discrimination ordinance.
That ordinance, passed in 2013, prohibits discrimination based on
sexual orientation and it applies to housing, employment and public
accommodation. But unto me religious services as weddings to not fall under such a rule of housing, employement or public accomodation, because it is not that institution which has to accommodate the married people in their belongings.
City Attorney Warren Wilson told The Spokesman-Review in May that
the Hitching Post Wedding Chapel likely would be required to follow the
ordinance.
“I would think that the Hitching Post would probably be considered
a place of public accommodation that would be subject to the
ordinance,” he said.
He also told television station KXLY that any wedding chapel that
turns away a gay couple would in theory be a violation of the law “and
you’re looking at a potential misdemeanor citation.”
Wilson confirmed to Knapp in a telephone conversation that even
ordained ministers would be required to perform same-sex weddings, the
lawsuit alleges.
“Wilson also responded that Mr. Knapp was not exempt from the
ordinance because the Hitching Post was a business and not a church,”
the lawsuit states.
And if he refused to perform the ceremonies, Wilson reportedly
told the minister that he could be fined up to $1,000 and serve up to
180 days in jail.
Now all of that was a moot point because until last week gay marriage was not legal in Idaho.
The Ninth Circuit issued an order on May 13 allowing same-sex
marriages to commence in Idaho on Oct. 15. Two days later – the folks at
the Hitching Post received a telephone call.
A man had called to inquire about a same-sex wedding ceremony. The
Hitching Post declined – putting them in violation of the law.
City officials did not respond to my requests for an interview nor did they respond to requests from local news outlets.
“The government should not force ordained ministers to act
contrary to their faith under threat of jail time and criminal fines,”
Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Jeremy Tedesco said. “The city is on
seriously flawed legal ground, and our lawsuit intends to ensure that
this couple’s freedom to adhere to their own faith as pastors is
protected just as the First Amendment intended.”
Alliance Defending Freedom also filed a temporary restraining order to stop the city from enforcing the ordinance.
“The Knapps are in fear that if they exercise their
First
Amendment rights they will be cited, prosecuted and sent to jail,”
Tedesco told Starnes.
It’s hard to believe this could happen in the United States. But
as the lawsuit states, the couple is in a “constant state of fear that
they may have to go to jail, pay substantial fines, or both, resulting
in them losing the business that God has called them to operate and
which they have faithfully operated for 25 years.”
The lawsuit comes the same week that
the city of Houston issued
subpoenas demanding that five Christian pastors turn over sermons
dealing with homosexuality and gender identity.
What in heaven’s name is happening to our country, folks? I was
under the assumption that churches and pastors would not be impacted by
same-sex marriage.
“The other side insisted this would never happen – that pastors
would not have to perform same-sex marriages,” Tedesco told me. “The
reality is – it’s already happening.”
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, told me
it’s “open season on Americans who refuse to bow to the government’s
redefinition of marriage.”
“Americans are witnesses to the reality that redefining marriage
is less about the marriage altar and more about fundamentally altering
the freedoms of the other 98 percent of Americans,” Perkins said.
Why should evangelical Christian ministers be forced to perform
and celebrate any marriage that conflicts with their beliefs?
“This is the brave new world of government sanctioned same-sex
unions – where Americans are forced to celebrate these unions regardless
of their religious beliefs,” Perkins told Todd Starnes.
As Todd Starnes writes his new book, “God Less America,” we are living in a
day when those who support traditional marriage are coming under fierce
attack.
The incidents in Houston and now in Coeur d’Alene are the just the
latest examples of a disturbing trend in the culture war – direct
attacks on clergy.
“Government officials are making clear they will use their
government power to punish those who oppose the advances of homosexual
activists,” Perkins said.
I’m afraid Mr. Perkins is absolutely right.
Whenever a city passes a nondiscrimination ordinance it seems like it’s open season on Christians.
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