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.
There will be a lot of this, and the goal is to take all their money.
“Which they can get if the Church rents out their space to others...”
Probably not. Churches are generally allowed a morals clause. Otherwise you could force them to host “Promiscuous Sex Night” at Holy Rosary Church.
“Indeed, the very motivation for opening the church building to a “secular” event might be religious in nature.[24] This is because a church does more than teach from sacred texts. It also tries to embody those teachings—such as the common admonition to love one’s neighbors. This results in community service. Holding the church building out as a safe and comfortable space is a way to love the neighborhood.[25] But because the church is motivated by its faith, it will almost certainly be selective when allocating the use of its property. (This selectivity would also undermine the “openness” prong of the statutory definition.) A traditional mosque or Southern Baptist church would probably not host a beer festival, and it is hard to imagine many churches hosting an atheist convention.”
http://harvardjol.com/2016/11/28/churches-are-not-places-of-public-accommodation/
I went out for lunch last week, and in the parking lot was a car plastered in all kinds of LGBT crap, with a particular bumper sticker standing out - "I'm proud of my gay daughter". I go inside the restaurant, and immediately spot who I think the owner is (disheveled red-headed hag with two teens in tow) - I was right.
I really wanted to ask her if the boy with her was her son, and if so, whether or not he was gay or straight, and if straight, why no bumper sticker on her car celebrating his straightness.
I also wanted to ask if the girl with her was the gay daughter mentioned, or another daughter, and if she was not the gay daughter, why no bumper sticker of her being proud of her straight daughter.
At the same time, I didn't want to deal with a screeching harpy at my lunch time, so I kept to myself.
RE: Remember waaaaaaay back when.... they just wanted the right to be left alone...?
The LGBT crowd has a larger goal — Acceptance of their actions and lifestyle as NORMAL BEHAVIOR.
Remember Barry Goldwater? The man was not a racist and in fact helped, employed and defended a lot of blacks from discrimination when he was in office. However, he refused to support the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because he was concerned that it would step on the Freedom of Businesses to decide for themselves who they want to do business with. His idea of Freedom of Speech includes the freedom of association and also the freedom to be a bigot.
His argument was that if a business is foolish enough to refuse to service a person because of his race or ethnicity, LET THEM HAVE THE FREEDOM TO DO IT. He believes that other businesses will exist to take away the profits of the bigoted business. In other words, he believed that the Free Market will sort it all out.
The end result is of course LBJ succeeded in painting him not only as a war monger, but as a racist who hankers for segregation and the KKK. Goldwater lost by a landslide when he ran against LBJ.
so, here we are today, extending the Civil Rights Act not only to blacks but also to LGBT who equate themselves with blacks. In other words today, if you deny your business to someone because of their orientation ( really because you do not want to participate or celebrate their actions ), it is equivalent to denying your business to someone because of the color of his skin.
Perverts are perverts. They are not and never will be “normal”. Face it.
“If we haven’t seen a backlash materialize over the horrific oppression of those of religious conscience by now, I doubt we ever will.”
Yup. When the first states had their amendments overturned, the news of the day on FR was all about how a cable network fired the star of a stupid duck hunting reality show. There must have been 30 threads about this for every one about actual states having their constitutional amendments overturned by federal judges over ‘gay marriage.’
But really, if nothing happened when abortion was imposed 45+ years ago, it’s hard to imagine much of anything having a backlash with any teeth now.
FReegards
They, like the muzzies, use our court system against us. It’s past time for a huge purge in this country. So sick of all of them.
>At the same time, I didn’t want to deal with a screeching harpy at my lunch time, so I kept to myself.<
You’re right, of course.
The screeching harpies have done two things.
They screech and society condones it.
They screech and turns our society into sick, emasculated sheep.
The Eagle has molted, and in its place we see beings with fleece.
Sounds like a good decision to me.
And Justified.
No later than the end of June.
Hosting is different than renting.
That's where they might get caught. But there may be other factors.
This case is different than the other cases they cite briefly.
In the other cases the defendant businesses were breaking or appeared to be breaking local anti-discrimination laws
In this case NO broken law is cited and the LGBT organization is suing claiming that the church rules cost them $$$.
It sounds like a frivolous lawsuit against the church.
I want an easy couple million when the mosque denies me a bacon breakfast event.
“It sounds like a frivolous law suit against the church”
Maybe you missed that this is in Oregon.
Portland, Oregon, Most atheist city in the US(by survey)
Their goal is to destroy the Bible.
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