Posted on 05/30/2018 9:32:47 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
An Oregon business has filed a complaint against a church that prohibited it from hosting an LGBT event in a building owned by the church, claiming that the fallout from that decision has harmed the company.
In 2015, Ambridge Event Center, which once rented out a space owned by Holy Rosary Church for various events, was compelled to reject an LGBT group's request to hold an event on the property due to the church's "morals clause."
In a lawsuit filed last week in Multnomah County Circuit Court in Oregon, Ambridge alleged that the church's rules against them hosting the LGBT event caused them harm. They are seeking $2.3 million in damages.
The PFLAG Portland Black Chapter, an African-American LGBT support group, sent a request to Ambridge to have an event held at the venue they were renting from Holy Rosary.
Ambridge had to decline the request and then apologized, stating that the refusal came at the order of Holy Rosary.
Although PFLAG considered filing a complaint with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, the organization did not do so in part because churches are exempted from state antidiscrimination law, according to Oregon Live.
Rod Dreher, a senior editor at The American Conservative and author of the book, The Benedict Option, wrote in a column published Tuesday that "this will not be the last challenge of this sort against churches."
"If an LGBT activist group targets a private business for working with a church it considers to be anti-LGBT, and its campaign results in that business going under, will the business owners take the church to court seeking damages? It would seem to me to be a frivolous lawsuit, but then again, in this climate, who knows?" wrote Dreher.
"The fact that Holy Rosary Church has to defend itself in this ridiculous lawsuit is a burden on a charitable organization that no doubt operates on a very tight margin."
In its lawsuit against the church, Ambridge claims: "Even businesses and government entities that had previously scheduled events with Ambridge who were not affiliated with the LGBTQ community but had equity-driven internal policies, refused to work with Ambridge after reading or hearing about the discriminatory policy involved in its employment relationship with the church."
Ambridge also took issue with the church's decision to end their contract deal after the company hired an openly gay events coordinator as part of their efforts to "restore its image with its clientele and its relationship with the LGBTO community."
"The church breached the contract by refusing to discuss or mediate the contract termination with Ambridge, by issuing unilateral restrictions on use of the event center and adjoining property, by demanding Ambridge pay taxes not owed under the contract, and by failing to exercise any effort, best or otherwise, to reach an amicable and mutually agreeable solution to the issues arising under the contract," continued the complaint.
Ambridge's complaint against Holy Rosary comes months after the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled against a Christian couple who were sued for $135,000 for refusing to make a gay wedding cake due to their religious objections.
Aaron and Melissa Klein, former owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, lost their appeal last December when the court decided that their effort to get an exemption was "a special license for discrimination."
"The Kleins seek an exemption based on their sincere religious opposition to same-sex marriage; but those with sincere religious objections to marriage between people of different races, ethnicities, or faiths could just as readily demand the same exemption," argued the appellate court.
Some Christian identity sects or white supremacist sects do.
And so it begins.
Yet the cowardly fags would dare not approach a mosque and request to be married inside.
No society has ever survived queerdom
Gays suing the Catholic Church. Too rich. Imagine of the Catholic Church sued this gay organization for slander?
Our pastor turned in his Oregon state license to marry people. He will perform a religious ceremony of marriage but you need a govmt. official to validate.
The church facilities are not rented out to anyone.
Legal insurance was upped.
Pastor saw this coming a couple of years ago.
The thuggish and totalitarian LGBTQIDIOTs disgust me. Using government force to compel obedience - even when the victim has religious or moral objections - is the sort of thing that national socialists, Soviet socialists, and Bernie’s socialists do. It’s why normal people hate the pure evil of socialism so much.
The church has a "moral clause" in its contracts. The space cannot be rented out to certain types of events, such as the one that was denied here.
The business agreed to the contract, and in fact abode by the entirely legal contract. The fact that the business could not or chose not to find an alternate space to hold the event is what caused the harm.
The only way the church loses here is if they failed to enforce such a morals clause on other contracts.
Smart man, sounds like a man of good spiritual discernment. The persecution is coming, and it won’t necessarily have to wait until after the Rapture to get started. It will just crank up to full blast some time after that.
RE: Gays suing the Catholic Church. Too rich. Imagine of the Catholic Church sued this gay organization for slander?
Well, the Catholic church already has its hands full with the homosexual/pedophile infiltration of its seminaries and their priesthood.
Then there’s Pope Francis himself, who is quite vague on the issue of homosexuality.
http://www.thereishopeinjesus.com/ (One’s ONLY hope)
You mean there isn’t another building in the whole city they could rent??
RE: You mean there isn’t another building in the whole city they could rent??
Heck, the same question can be asked of other services:
Isn’t there another baker they can go to who will provide the service for their “wedding”?
Isn’t there another photographer?
Isn’t there another ______ (fill in the blanks).
You get my point. The point isn’t getting the service, the point is MAKING A POLITICAL STATEMENT and PUNISHING those who refuse to conform.
Separation of church and stain.
Ambridge knew about the moral clause when they signed the contract. Case dismissed. (Or rather, it would be if the courts still followed the rule of law.)
Re: “The church has a “moral clause” in its contracts. The space cannot be rented out to certain types of events, such as the one that was denied here.“
In a sane world, you would be correct.
But, many pastors and churches have decided not to rent out the church building to anyone unless it is for a Christian religious purpose.
If you rent it out for any non-religious purpose, i.e. a wedding that doesn’t involve any members of the church or the pastor of that church, or some type of community club or activity, you’re church could be open to non-discrimination laws because non-religious activities are supposedly not covered by the church’s theological moral objections to same-sex marriages, transgender marriages, pro-homosexual groups, etc.
Yes, it’s crazy but that’s what’s coming. Also, what another poster said about his pastor getting rid of his “license to marry certificate” from the state is the coming trend among evangelical churches.
As Christians, we’re going to have to follow God’s laws rather than man’s and that may mean withdrawing from performing “state sanctioned” weddings or hosting community events. Such are the times we live.
But, we know how the story ends, so take courage. Even if the world kills us for Jesus’ sake and the sake of the Gospel, His truth endures and we will live with Him in Heaven.
If we haven't seen a backlash materialize over the horrific oppression of those of religious conscience by now, I doubt we ever will.
We have become a people pathologically afraid of the leftist state. And the upcoming generation was incubated in their indoctrination centers.
Remember waaaaaaay back when.... they just wanted the right to be left alone...?
Fine rent it to them but triple charge them for the hazmat cleaning afterward.
Yeah, we all know the gays went out of their way to set up the church.
This is the corrupt Oregon courts we are talking about.
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