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Posted on 10/19/2014 4:13:49 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
City officials in Coeur d'Alene Idaho have told a married couple who are both ordained ministers that they will go to jail if they refuse to perform wedding ceremonies for gay couples.
The Alliance for Defending Freedom has filed suit against the city and asked for temporary restraining order to prevent officials from carrying out their threat.
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit and a motion for a temporary restraining order Friday to stop officials in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, from forcing two ordained Christian ministers to perform wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples.
City officials told Donald Knapp that he and his wife Evelyn, both ordained ministers who run Hitching Post Wedding Chapel, are required to perform such ceremonies or face months in jail and/or thousands of dollars in fines. The city claims its “non-discrimination” ordinance requires the Knapps to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies now that the courts have overridden Idaho’s voter-approved constitutional amendment that affirmed marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
“The government should not force ordained ministers to act contrary to their faith under threat of jail time and criminal fines,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco. “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. The city is on seriously flawed legal ground, 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.”
The couple would face 180 days in jail and up to $1000 in fines per day if they dared to adhere to their religious beliefs.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
That one went over my head.
This does make for a weak spot for attacking Christians, and we know that those who hate Christ will try to do it.
It should be a warning to firm up their faith and how they live it. A Christianity that asks the world to fill in the blanks does not have much room to complain when the blanks are filled in evilly.
Probably goes over most claimedly Christian heads.
They might lose this “battle” but they won’t stop until they win. They will win because “our side” will continue to compromise and compromise until their side is “inevitable”
Is that a pledge?
Nah, I’m judging by history
Well, if you want to take your eyes off the strain of history that is led by the Lord rather than by Satan, you are welcome to do so. Welcome by the pits of hell, that is.
I’d sooner save stories of defeats not as manifest destiny, but as warnings of where one goes when one forgets and ignores and declines to celebrate and cheer for and generally work on behalf of the Lord. That is more realistic to the Lord’s purpose.
Our side is utterly failing to get the core message out : marriage is to facilitate and protect procreation, an ability which is by far the norm for heterosexuals and is utterly impossible for homosexuals. The issue of “gay marriage” is not one of equality because there isn’t equality : gays can’t procreate, and marriage exists to ensure procreating heterosexuals take full responsibility for their procreative tendencies.
If this message isn’t pushed in courts and legislatures hard, our side, culture, and nation will fail.
gays are so freedom loving they use govt to force Christians to celebrate their lifestyle. I can see why Republicans/Libertarians are joining the gay marriage cause/s
Unless the state constitution protects religious liberty then I say the state is OK. I am OK with religious persecution by states, just not by the federal government. But this is because I reject the concept of “incorporation” which the supremes have used to gut the tenth amendment.
Unless the state constitution protects religious liberty then I say the state is OK. I am OK with religious persecution by states, just not by the federal government. But this is because I reject the concept of “incorporation” which the supremes have used to gut the tenth amendment.
I really think that post needs a sarcasm tag
Obama will just hire some czars to perform the deed.
Obama will just hire some czars to perform the deed.
“Sarah Palin is a native of Idaho.”
f course I know that...
“Members of the clergy who adhere to basic Biblical teachings should publicly,and officially,announce that they will no longer perform legal “marriages” for *anyone*.They should announce that from that moment on they will only “bless” a union in keeping with the teachings of their religion/denomination.The same couple,they should say,is free to consult a Justice of the Peace if they wish to be married in the eyes of he law.”
Excellent...
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What shaky legal grounds? They have the free exercise clause of the first amendment on their side.
-PJ
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