Posted on 10/20/2014 10:08:03 AM PDT by DaveMSmith
Two ordained Christian pastors in Idaho have filed a federal lawsuit and a motion for temporarily restraining Coeur d'Alene city officials from forcing them to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies or face prosecution for violating "non-discrimination" laws.
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed the lawsuit and the motion on behalf of Donald Knapp and his wife, Evelyn, who run Hitching Post Wedding Chapel and have been required by city officials to perform gay ceremonies or face months in jail and/or thousands of dollars in fines.
The city says its non-discrimination ordinance requires them to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies because the courts have overridden Idaho's voter-approved constitutional amendment that affirmed marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianpost.com ...
These “human rights” laws and commissions are just work arounds on the Constitution. We have a right to free association. They’re just pro-homosexual enforcement outfits.
There is poverty, violence, war, disease, and tragedy all around the world. There are people in need but yet they throw so many resources at the gay agenda. They act as if there is nothing else matters in the world. All that matters to these small minded perverts is that they can have perverted sex.
They’re all small-minded perverts consumed with nothing but their twisted behavior.
Was reading the comments and found this...
“Thier being ministers is irrelevant because they are not a church, they are a for profit business. If they don’t want to perform the ceremony themselves, they don’t have to. They can bring in another minister, a rabbi an justice of the peace. What they cannot do is refuse to rent their for profit business to a customer based on thier religious beliefs.”
This person makes a point. They could just say “we can’t but will get you someone who can” and do just that.
“The Hitching Post” would have a hard time claiming to be a church. These pastors are in a vulnerable position legally. Businesses and churches both have rights, of course, but this case is a bit of a tangle. The local authorities seem to be taking advantage of the ambiguity.
Hitching Post Wedding Chapel.
To me it sounds like a for-profit wedding facility that wouldn’t provide much in the way of pre-marriage counseling.
I’m sure that the couple running it genuinely believe that homosexual marriage is wrong, and I certainly don’t believe they should be forced to provide to gays, any more than a baker or photographer should.
But they aren’t running a church; they’re running a for-profit wedding facility. When heterosexuals have an impulsive wedding, they generally aren’t doing the institution of marriage any favors.
Sounds like somebody needs to conduct an exorcism down at City Hall.....
These “human rights” laws and commissions are just work arounds on the Constitution.
It would be funny if one of these pastors agreed to do it but everything he said was from the bible passages regarding homosexuality, and then said, “as a pastor for the Christian faith, I find it impossible to marry you on religious grounds. However, you are entering into a civil union which the state wishes to label “marriage”. It is in no way a marriage from the biblical perspective and in the eyes of God, but if you sign the paperwork, I’ll endorse that you have entered into a civil contract, easily broken, that the state calls ‘marriage’”.
And there you go.
That is not actually how it works for most pastors, but these guys may not be “pastors” in the literal sense.
And my liberal acquaintances confidently assured me that it was just a RWNJ fantasy, that there was no way that clergy would be compelled like this.
It seems to me that to err on the side of the first amendment would be the best option but Idaho does not seem to care. The idea of forcing an establishment to hire a third party as agent/employee to act in a way their religion prohibits would be unheard of until these days of Romney/Obamacare.
There is no longer any religious protection in the US (unless you are Muslim of course). So the very reason this country was founded has now been vaporized. What is worse is that there are conservatives saying profit motive causes people to lose their religious rights.
Looks like Lyndon Johnson has done his work for the cause. When he decided it was alright for Congress to make laws with respect to religion that would prohibit the free exercise of all religion and religious speech whenever profit is produced.
He should not be willing to change, “Do you take this man?” “Do you take this woman?” I wonder if the homos would agree to that?
They are ordained pastors so they should have religious freedoms. Apparently FReepers are all for the homosexual agenda. Churches will be next and can’t wait for their excuses then.
Pray FR wakes up
They’ll NEVER be satisfied with these victories and NEVER stop pushing for additional concessions because they are driven by an unending hatred of anything that reminds them of their own perverse nature. This leads us to the horrifying realization that eventually, given enough time, every perverse demand they can make, they WILL make.
They’re all small-minded perverts consumed with nothing but their twisted behavior.
The queers have managed to make it seem as though they are excepted by the majority so most people are afraid (too cowardly) to say what they really think of them which does make it seem to be true.
I believe Mark Twain nailed that one. I believe in calling a pervert a pervert. That’s what they are.
Unfortunately not, since that would still make them morally complicit in the marriage.
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