Posted on 10/20/2014 6:26:25 AM PDT by thirst4truth
COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – 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, 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.”
“The government exists to protect and respect our freedoms, not attack them,” Tedesco added. “The city cannot erase these fundamental freedoms and replace them with government coercion and intolerance.”
The Hitching Post Wedding Chapel is across the street from the Kootenai County Clerk’s office, which issues marriage licenses. The Knapps, both in their 60s and who themselves have been married for 47 years, began operating the wedding chapel in 1989 as a ministry. They perform religious wedding ceremonies, which include references to God, the invocation of God’s blessing on the union, brief remarks drawn from the Bible designed to encourage the couple and help them to have a successful marriage, and more. They also provide each couple they marry with a CD that includes two sermons about marriage, and they recommend numerous Christian books on the subject. The Knapps charge a small fee for their services.
Coeur d’Alene officials told the Knapps privately and also publicly stated that the couple would violate the city’s public accommodations statute once same-sex marriage became legal in Idaho if they declined to perform a same-sex ceremony at their chapel. On Friday, the Knapps respectfully declined such a ceremony and now face up to 180 days in jail and up to $1,000 in fines for each day they decline to perform that ceremony.
“The city somehow expects ordained pastors to flip a switch and turn off all faithfulness to their God and their vows,” explained ADF Legal Counsel Jonathan Scruggs. “The U.S. Constitution as well as federal and state law clearly stand against that. 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.”
Virginia McNulty Robinson, one of nearly 2,500 private attorneys allied with ADF, is serving as local counsel on behalf of the Knapps in Knapp v. City of Coeur d’Alene, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho.
Pronunciation guide: Tedesco (Tuh-DESS’-koh)
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.
If the nature of the ceremony is a "specialized" ceremony named for and held under the banner of the Scriptural verses that apply to the union of man and woman, and buttressed by those that condemn homosexuality, and all is stated up front, nothing hidden, I wonder if that sort of specialization would allow religious freedom to continue in a nation founded with this freedom in mind.
I kinda doubt it, though. We've become so psychologically damaged that we now are celebrating our impairments and damage as healthy and normal.
We're now even beyond the stuff my Grandpa used to warn me about when I was a kid growing up in the 1960s during his mini-rants about all the damn hippies in Iowa City.
For many, this is fun and feels amazing, sorta like the free fall in skydiving, but the ground is rushing up rather quickly and that thing we're pulling on isn't the ripcord.
If I was a pastor, I would say “MAKE ME!” What happened to the Constitution? It was supposed to restrain government. It has not. Maybe we need something else. Like, say, an amendment that arms the people against the depredations of government. Oh, wait...
Perform only services of Holy Matrimony. Definition of Holy Matrimony is provided in Scripture and can only be an institution which exists between a man and a woman.
Expunge the terms "marriage" and "wedding" from all promotional materials.
And no civil authority can force it to do otherwise if they don't perform "weddings" or "marriages." People referring to the service are free to call the services what ever they want.
There. Fixed.
FReegards!
They run a wedding chapel. It is like a McDonald’s of marriage.
No. They should not be forced to perform weddings they do not wish to perform, but I hardly think they take Christianity all that seriously (A female minister?). Their attitude is evident in the near drive thru marriages that they provide. How sure are they that the ones they do perform are solid Christian marriages, or is it, as I suspect, a numbers game and merely a business.
This is how they will eventually get to the hard core Christians is by chipping away at those on the fringes, like these people. This is intentional, this is part of a plan.
Coeur D’Alene, Idaho??
This country is SO doomed.
The Pastors will refuse to perform the service, and the state will be faced with jail time, fines etc. I suspect the public will not like the state doing this
‘By the power forced upon me by the state of disfunction, I now pronounce you spouse and spouse. Be fruitful and multiply, I mean, rock on’...
This violates the “wall of separation” thingy the commie ‘RATS are always pimping. A clear violation of the First Amendment.
Tick tock. THis endly as badly as it began—is anyone surprised?
God will not be mocked.
I go to bed wondering if Christians will revolt or return to the catacombs.
Revolt.
RESIST!
And that is EXACTLY why they picked an out of the way podunk little town like that in Idaho.
Both.
The majority will go along. Most of the church will fall away because it is the “nice” thing to do.
“Queerly beloved,we are gathered here together with the approval of Satan and in this company of degenerates to join together this freak and this weirdo in unholy deadlock.”
What about this part of the amendment? It is petitions on the ballet that the people voted for in nearly 33 states. Oregon was included on that list, we amended the state constitution to define marriage as one man, one woman. Then the militant homosexuals sued, the Democrat Attorney General refused to defend, they shopped for a homosexual judge and stroke of a pen, the peoples petition is overturned.
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