Posted on 10/20/2014 2:02:16 PM PDT by NYer
.- Two Christian ministers in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, could face legal punishment or be forced to sell their nearly 100-year-old wedding chapel for declining to perform same-sex “wedding” ceremonies.
“Many have denied that pastors would ever be forced to perform ceremonies that are completely at odds with their faith, but that’s what is happening here – and it’s happened this quickly,” Jeremy Tedesco, senior legal counsel with the legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, said Oct. 18.
“The government should not force ordained ministers to act contrary to their faith under threat of jail time and criminal fines,” he said. “The city cannot erase these fundamental freedoms and replace them with government coercion and intolerance.”
Tedesco responded to the changing legal climate in Idaho, which is threatening the work of David and Evelyn Knapp, ordained ministers of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.
Married for 47 years, the couple has operated the Hitching Post Wedding Chapel since 1989. The 95-year-old chapel sits across the street from the Kootenai County Clerk’s office.
Coeur d’Alene’s city officials have told the Knapps that their refusal to perform a same-sex ceremony at their chapel violates the city’s anti-discrimination policy. For each day they refuse to perform the ceremony, they face up to 180 days in jail and up to $1,000 in fines.
The city’s application of its anti-discrimination ordinance follows a federal court override of Idaho’s constitutional amendment that defined marriage as a union of one man and one woman.
The Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the Knapps seeking a temporary restraining order against the city law.
“If the Knapps refuse to perform one same-sex ceremony for one week, they risk going to jail for over three years and being fined $7,000,” the lawsuit said. “If the Knapps refuse to perform one same-sex ceremony for 30 days, they risk going to jail for over 14 years and being fined $30,000. If the Knapps refuse to perform one same-sex ceremony for a year, they risk going to jail for 180 years and being fined $365,000.”
The Knapps’ limited liability corporation which operates the chapel, Hitching Post Weddings, says in its founding statement that the business intends to promote biblical marriage.
The chapel’s religious ceremonies invoke God’s blessing on the newlyweds and cite the Bible in encouraging the couple to have a successful marriage. Couples married at the chapel receive a CD with two sermons about marriage and receive recommendations for many Christian books on marriage. The Knapps charge a small fee for marriages at the chapel.
“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,” Tedesco said.
The lawsuit charges that the city’s application of the law also violates Idaho’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Donald Knapp in May told the Spokane, Washington news station KXLY that he “cannot unite people in a way that I believe would conflict with what the Bible teaches.”
“I don't hate those people. I don't think anybody should ever be abusive or mistreat them or anything like that, but I cannot in clear conscience unite such a couple,” he said.
The Knapps said in May that if the law forces them to perform the same-sex ceremonies they will look into selling the chapel.
Warren Wilson, an official with the city attorney’s office, in May told the Spokane Spokesman-Review that the Hitching Post would “probably be considered a place of accommodation” that would be subject to the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance.
Jonathan Scruggs, legal counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom, said the city “cannot mandate across-the-board conformity to its interpretation of a city ordinance in utter disregard for the guaranteed freedoms Americans treasure in our society.”
“The city somehow expects ordained pastors to flip a switch and turn off all faithfulness to their God and their vows,” he said.
FYI, ping!
Make this little chapel a church, pronto!
Totalitarianism is here.
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
I certainly don't blame the guy, but basically he's selling a commodity and now is trying to say that he has an objection to certain people. The point is, his religious stance is thin - at best.
“Oops sorry my minister’s license expired last month. You’ll need to go to the Faggot Factory down the road. I hear they have everything gay that you’ll ever need including Universal Church pastors and pedophelia enticemement props.good luck with your hunt”....
As I said on another thread, the ministers should just move their chapel 50 feet outside the city limits. Of course, we are already seeing similar legislation being passed by states, and soon I’m sure it will be passed by Congress. God forbid that anyone should have anywhere to go where they can live and do business according to the dictates of their conscience and their faith...
Christian ministers told to perform gay ‘weddings’ or face jail time
This would be illegal under the Constitution. The Government can not ESTABLISH a State Religion. In ordering Clergy to marry homosexuals, they would be adding a precept into Christianity that does not exist there. Thus Establishing a State Religion.
It is only a matter of time until the GOPe caves on this and what is happening in Houston like they are now caving on gay marriage
“The city cannot erase these fundamental freedoms and replace them with government coercion and intolerance.”
But they sure as heck will try.
INTOLERANCE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED!
They want to cave on social issues now. If they could get away with it, they could eliminate opposition to abortion and gay marriage from the official platform.
No, the point is that it is not up to you, me and especially the government to decide the validity and sincerity of his religious belief. He may have a sincere religious belief that as long as a marriage is between a man and a woman, it is blessed by God, irrespective of other considerations we might deem important, and that a same sex marriage does not meet that standard.
The Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that the government may not try to determine whether or not a particular religious position is valid. The only questions are whether or not there is a compelling government interest at stake in the activity being regulated, and whether or not there is a less intrusive or restrictive way to achieve that interest. Since there are many other places for people to get married (including going to the courthouse), I see no compelling government interest in making sure these homosexuals can marry at the place they choose.
Notice how silent the homonazi groups are about this.
Would love to hear log cabin republicans respond.
Find it interesting the GOP is silent on this threat to liberty.
No shirt, no shoes, no service. In this instance, no perverts, no coprophiles, no diseases, no service. It is his right to not work for disgusting mental patients.
Contact some local militias, once they arrive, state that if they try to arrest them there will be a fight. It worked with Bundy.
The government is like a high school bully at this point. Do what we say or face the consequences, constantly pushing us around. A show of force always makes the government back off. Just like Bundy 6 months ago. Government tried to seize private property, dozens of armed men showed up, government backed down. I believe they know if they force a “shot heard round the world” it’s over for the government as it is now. They will not do it. Not until they have taken the weapons. Then you should be concerned. We have every right to push back, the government is not the end all be all and will eventually need to be put in line.
I’m not advocating violence or anything like that. I am just saying a show of force would get the government to back down a bit, and come to some kind of compromise. These Americans should not serve time in jail. It’s ridiculous. Whatever happened to the right to refuse service to anyone. Really places like these and bakeries need to tell people they don’t want to serve they are sorry and are booked up full for months, come back later.
We should stand up for people being punished for exercising their constitutional rights. Anyone.
Whatever you think of his conscience, the government should not force him to violate it. Where the two differ, obey God rather than men.
It would be interesting to see the city government’s response if the Hitchin’ Post was operated by Muslims, who also refused to marry gay people. I doubt they would have the guts or the desire to oppose them.
Actually, that argument might work...
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