Posted on 06/29/2015 8:21:39 AM PDT by ConservingFreedom
Lost in the celebrations over universal gay marriage, like abortion, being deemed a right found in the “penumbras and emanations” of the Constitution is the chilling effect the ruling has on religious liberty. In a telling exchange between the Obama administration’s Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. and Justice Samuel Alito, detailed by Tom Blumer at Newsbusters.com, in which Verrilli admitted that churches could lose their tax exemptions if they refuse to perform gay weddings:
Justice Alito: Well, in the Bob Jones case, the Court held that a college was not entitled to taxexempt status if it opposed interracial marriage or interracial dating. So would the same apply to a university or a college if it opposed same-sex marriage?
General Verrilli: You know, I don’t think I can answer that question without knowing more specifics, but it’s certainly going to be an issue. I don’t deny that. I don’t deny that, Justice Alito. It is it is going to be an issue.
So the administration admits that the tax exemption of institutions could be at risk if they refuse to acquiesce in the acceptance of gay marriages. There is no reason to assume that this mandate would not apply to institutions such as the Catholic Church. Those who think this is a red herring forget that this is the administration dragging the Little Sisters of the Poor, a group of elderly nuns devoted to helping the aged poor, through the courts, because they won’t comply with Obamacare’s contraception coverage mandate [...]
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Well I guess the “church” will have to choose between Christ or their pieces of silver then.
The word of God doesn’t need a fancy building to be heard.
somewhat off topic, but want to make these points about the marriage court case:
1. the area of sexual identity, sexual orientation, trans-whatever people, cross dressers, etc. are NOT PROTECTED CLASSES UNDER FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS LAWS. Thus the court has no federal non discrimination laws they can point to in rendering their verdict.
2. The area of equal protection makes no sense as applied, because under traditional marriage laws, everyone was already treated equally. Any man could marry any woman. We are all limited to one partner at a time, a partner of legal age, barred from certain close relatives, etc. I understand a homosexual doesn’t want to marry an opposite sex partner but they have the same rights as anyone else.
3. Two years ago, in striking down the Federal Defense of Marriage Act, the court ruled that the federal government must defer to the states in defining marriage. So since some states allowed homosexual marriage, the federal government had to recognize those marriages from those states. But now, the court has decided that the states DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO DEFINE MARRIAGE AFTER ALL. Yet there was no explanation in the court ruling as to why the liberals changed their minds about this key point.
Is there an upside to this? Can someone tackle that question?
As I understand it the Tax Exemption applies to donors who give to the church. Not to the church. It allows the donor to deduct their donations from their income tax - if they have enough to qualify beyond the Standard Deduction. This was allowed in order to encourage people to give to charities and ministries. I have never deducted my donations to a church or ministry. I figure my donation in full has been given the the Lord, as intended. This may rile some folks up but - so be it!
If people are only willing to donate in order to receive money back via deductions that is a poor point.
The only upside is that after the upcoming civil war there will be no homosexuals or liberals left to argue for gay marriage.
You pretty much summed it
Any “non discrimination” law or ordinance should be void on its face as against public policy and Freedom of Association and Religion. A free society should not force any acceptance on this type of issue on anyone.
This SC has been prostituted and should be broken up via impeachment of the Constitutional outlaws.
The conflict with the DOMA decision clearly shows this was a political decision. All the more reason to get rid of the aforementioned jurists.
Politicians who voted to confirm these traitors need to be run out of office . . pronto
“Any man could marry any woman. “
Uhmmm, not in the Southern USA, they couldn’t. There were still anti-miscegenation laws until the 1960s in a lot of places.
The government would probably revoke your permit to have a home church too. So meeting your fellow believers would have to be done under the radar of public attention. Kind of like China.
I’ve always wondered what would happen if I won the big lotto jackpot (never play but that’s besides the point), and gave the entire pot to my church. Would I then get to take the entire payout and stick it in the eye of the money grubbers? What a great feeling that would be.
The wheat and chaff will be separated. We will see which churches will cave to evil government demands in order to keep their almighty dollars and which churches choose to obey the living God.
I meant to say that after the 1967 decision on interracial marriage, that any man could marry any woman.
IF liberals & homosexuals get their way; the very socialistic monster they will create will eliminate them first as past history shows us. - No civil war; the last one cost my Southern family terribly. Daddy always said that he wasn’t in love with Lincoln; that Lincoln could have avoided that war if he hadn’t really wanted it. The cotton gin & other considerations spelled the end of slavery anyway. My great-great grandfather fought at Shiloh. Told my grandmother when she asked what Shiloh was like - “Shiloh was awful, just awful. You didn’t even know whether or not you killed anybody; it was such a bloody mess of confusion!” - I’m 68 yrs. old. My parents used to take me to Shiloh Park when I was a small child. The Bloody Pond had a darker, bloodier appearance then than it does now. - The memory of wars fade, bloody ponds clear up again, the dead are buried & hidden, & people start romanticizing war again. WAR IS NOTHING BUT HELL!!
The tax exempt status would also apply to property or buildings the church owns. Anything the church purchases would also include all taxes. In effect, the loss of the tax exempt status could cause many small churches to lose their building and the land upon which is rests because they could not afford the property taxes. It would also raise the cost of their ministry programs in order to pay for taxes.
Of course God’s church would survive all of this, but it is a sad state of affairs in a Country which began with the concept that churches supported not only the spiritual needs of its citizens, but also the very foundation upon which our freedom and liberty rests. But, that’s all but gone now.
Yes, you're right, that is probably one of the most disturbing things about this.
Also, another thing that people here don't seem to realize is that the churches are not going to escape persecution simply by losing their tax-exempt status.
Henry VIII was not happy unless he got explicit adherence to his program, and Obama or whoever succeeds him won't stop simply at silence and disempowerment of churches, but will want them totally silenced. And this will go beyond the clergy (who in any case will be the first to knuckle under) and all the way down to the humble believer, just as it did under Henry VIII.
It is time for churches and clergy to completely sever their relationship with the State and to refuse to be agents of the state.
Starting yesterday, I advised my own church to IMMEDIATELY cease signing marriage licenses. Further they must move as quickly as possible to redefine their marriage ceremony as exclusively an “ecclesiastical matter”, and even rename it to a more scriptural name, like Covenant Ceremony. When a young couple approaches a pastor to marry them he would instruct them that they should first get married in the eyes of the state, in a civil ceremony that is a matter solely between them and the State to complete. Only then would he perform the Covenant Ceremony in church.
That’s where I fear this is headed.
I'm not even sure the church needs that degree of entanglement.
correction- Churches WILL lose tax exemptions- 2 days after the ruling, and many are already screaming about churches getting exemptions-
So when the government stops the exemptions, there will be MILLIONS of people who are being helped by churches (drug addicts, homeless, pregnant teens, prostitutes, troubled teens etc etc etc) that will lose their support, and the government will be tasked with helping these people- and we’ve seen how well government works when they ‘help’ people-
Gee- What a victory for the left
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