"The way the law was passed was unconstitutional. "
Is this really true?
"The law requires specific language be posted to ban guns in a church."
What's wrong with that? If the state has a right to carry law and someone doesn't want guns on their property, how is anybody supposed to know? On the other hand, why should they have the right to override a state law in the first place?
"The law does not allow churches to keep people from storing their guns in their cars, in church parking lots."
It seems pretty clear what the REAL issue is here. These groups oppose the concealed carry law - period.
What is ELCA??
It is beyond me how these different denominations have the gall to impose the personal prejudices of their hierarchies upon the state when in many cases these prejudices do not reflect the opinions of their congregants. They do it on a whole spectrum of issues - without any substantive Biblical backing and its getting worse.
No wonder these churches are loosing members to more fundamentalist groups.
I am a Methodist and am getting pretty fed up with the tripe I am continually baraged with from official Methodist Publications on these issues. If it weren't for my wife, I'd tell them to take a hike and join some fundamentalist group.
"The way the law was passed was unconstitutional. "
Is this really true?
No. The Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled on exactly what the legislature must do to meet the constitutional requirements, and the legislature followed them exactly.
"The law requires specific language be posted to ban guns in a church."
What's wrong with that? If the state has a right to carry law and someone doesn't want guns on their property, how is anybody supposed to know? On the other hand, why should they have the right to override a state law in the first place?
The churches want to have the unique ability to forbid carry in their own special way. They claim to object to the posting language on religious grounds, and seek an exemption just for the churches - which gets awfully close to a violation of the establishment clause for my tastes.
We don't let churches use their own language on emergency exit signs, or on handicapped parking signs. I see no reason why they should get a unique exemption to the language on the no gun signs.
"The law does not allow churches to keep people from storing their guns in their cars, in church parking lots."
It seems pretty clear what the REAL issue is here. These groups oppose the concealed carry law - period.
What this is really about is keeping Lillehaug's name in the papers, as a preparation for his 2006 Senate run, while allowing his law-firm to scam the churches for a couple of hundred grand.
What is ELCA??
Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.