Posted on 10/14/2019 11:00:52 AM PDT by Red Badger
He says this will include historically black colleges and mosques
Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke doubled down on his proposal to revoke the tax-exempt status of religious institutions that do not support same-sex marriage.
The former Texas congressman reiterated his support for punitive tax measures against churches or affiliated services that believe marriage is between a man and a woman, a position he introduced at CNN's Equality Town Hall on Thursday evening. NBC host Geoff Bennett asked O'Rourke how he would implement this plan given that the government "can't just dole out punishments on theological grounds."
"You are free to believe anything that you want to in this country, to associate with whom you please, to practice your faith as you best see fit, but you are not allowed to discriminate against people in this country," O'Rourke said during a Sunday appearance. "What I'm talking about is making sure that we follow the letter and the spirit of the law, and that as president I will sign into law the Equality Act to make sure that we do not deny the civil rights and human rights of any of our fellow Americans based on their sexual orientation or gender identity."
House Democrats passed the Equality Act in May. Critics say that it will not just protect LGBT people, but punish those with traditional religious beliefs. The legislation could undermine Religious Freedom Restoration Acts at the state and federal level and would strike down "religious freedom protections for private citizens if they exercised their consciences in running their own businesses."
O'Rourke went on to say he believes any nonprofit organization that is going to deny equal treatment under the law to Americans in the "LGBTQ community" will be held accountable, saying he would withdraw their tax-exempt status.
Bennett pressed O'Rourke on the unintended consequences of this policy, noting that it could also be used to target "conservative black churches, mosques, Islamic organizations, orthodox Jewish communities, [and] a number of religiously affiliated HBCUs."
O'Rourke responded that a religious organization simply professing opposition to same-sex marriage would not be enough to void its tax-exempt status. Rather, religiously affiliated service providers—those in "higher education, or health care, or adoption services" for example—that "discriminate or deny equal treatment under the law based on someone's skin color or ethnicity or gender or sexual orientation" would be at risk.
"If one of these nonprofit institutions persisted in that kind of discriminant treatment of our fellow Americans, we would look at revoking their tax-exempt status," he said.
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, who is married to a man, criticized O'Rourke's proposal on Sunday, saying that O'Rourke does not understand its implications. During an appearance on CNN's State of the Union, he raised the same concerns Bennett had.
"That means going to war not only with churches, but I would think with mosques and a lot of organizations that may not have the same view of various religious principles that I do, but also, because of the separation of church and state, are recognized as non-profits in this country," Buttigieg said.
Buttigieg said that he supported anti-discrimination rules "for a school or an organization," but that targeting the tax-exempt status of religious institutions themselves would be destructive.
"Going after the tax exemption of churches, Islamic centers, or other religious facilities in this country, I think that's just going to deepen the divisions that we're already experiencing," he said.
You could also call him “Irish Bob”.
“you are not allowed to discriminate against people in this country.”
Sure you can, unborn babies, gun owners and Christians are all fair game for discrimination under his totalitarian system.
The Democrats have gone beyond the limits of craziness. Does anybody remember that old tv show “The Outer Limits”?
This guy Beto is licking Obammys balls.
Where are the moderate Democrats?
Allah Ahkbar has a jihad out on him, no doubt.
Fatwah..............
I would like to see someone file an antidiscrimination lawsuit for the civil rights of unborn babies.
Homosexual intolerance....
Anti-God homosexual.
There is no such thing as a same-sex marriage! The courts can tell them there is but it is not so. The entire world understands what a marriage is and it is not the joining of two sex perverts.
Well.. if you do it is guaranteed you are a minimum of a half-century old.. ;-)
We control the vertical. We control the horizontal..
I’m not giving anything away.
What about Bernie Sanders the Communist? This is a guy who at least to me is worse than a Nazi, and the press pushes him relentlessly for President. Nazis killed 25 million people, Communists killed 100 million plus and counting, and a guy like him running for President is perfectly acceptable? This is a mofo who should have his US citizenship rescinded and have his ass booted to North Korea, it’s unbelievable the protection these guys get. Communism is THE most inhuman political system ever created in human history, a political system that makes Sharia law seem like a teddy bear factory and this guy gets his ass constantly kissed? “Oh he had a heart attack! Oh please kiss his butt” Screw that, too bad the mofo didn’t drop dead! This is the media protecting these guys and why the media is our #1 problem and the biggest threat to freedom today.
probably hiding under their beds? (note how HilLIARy’s vote count was down, even with all the fake ones counted). Regular Democrats have nothing worth voting for with the likes of HilLIARy, Fake Injun Squaw, Bernie the Red, Buttplug, and so forth. (Many of them just stay home instead, and many also will vote for PDJT since he is mostly a pragmatic person and not hard-conservative in reality...or so it can be perceived...not trying to categorize him or anyone, just saying that he’s an attractive candidate for a wider spectrum than is commonly credited to him)
they really really need to kick SorozNazi and his crowd OUT and retake control of their party
In the Democrat party all the “activists” are paid.
most of them sure are paid, yes.
for almost anything.. even local zoning board meetings... they round up ‘activists’ into a bus at the university campus and pay them cash for taking the day trip to some unsuspecting suburban town ... to make noise and read pre-printed ‘statements’ into the agenda ...
and of course, most of the Occupy and Black Lives Matter and paint-throwing and rock-throwing and bottle-throwing and so forth are almost all paid events
(a lot of the $$ is reportedly tracing right back to SorozNazi front groups, of which he has hundreds with new ones every day it seems)
Have you ever heard of the Tides Foundation? It is a foundation that is supposed to work a lot with George Soros. The Tides Foundation is a way of obscuring the source of money like money laundering. The Democrats give away many millions of dollars in “block grants” which as passed out throughout the country where the leftist activists parcel it out and decide how to use it.
I suspect that a creature like Soros does not use HIS money when he can use OUR money. I suspect that the American taxpayer is the source of the money that Soros uses around the world for all of his evil deeds.
that too
yes, Tides Foundation is also up to its neck reportedly in the takeover of Notre Dame University and all the corruption of morality there with abortion teaching and all that rot
post around this site and you will find a list of hundreds of the seditious and anti-Christian and anti-Jewish outfits and ‘causes’ he organizes and/or funds
https://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individuals/george-soros/
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