Posted on 10/18/2014 4:09:39 PM PDT by EternalVigilance
Two Christian ministers who own an Idaho wedding chapel were told they had to either perform same-sex weddings or face jail time and up to $1,000 in daily fines, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court.
Alliance Defending Freedom is representing Donald and Evelyn Knapp, two ordained ministers who own the Hitching Post Wedding Chapel in Coeur d’Alene.
“Right now they are at risk of being prosecuted,” attorney Jeremy Tedesco told me. “The threat of enforcement is more than just credible.”
The wedding chapel is registered as a “religious corporation” limited to performing “one-man-one-woman marriages as defined by the Holy Bible.”
However, the chapel is also a for-profit business and city officials said that means the owners must comply with the local nondiscrimination ordinance.
That ordinance, passed in 2013, prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and it applies to housing, employment and public accommodation.
City Attorney Warren Wilson told The Spokesman-Review in May that the Hitching Post Wedding Chapel likely would be required to follow the ordinance.
“I would think that the Hitching Post would probably be considered a place of public accommodation that would be subject to the ordinance,” he said.
He also told television station KXLY that any wedding chapel that turns away a gay couple would in theory be a violation of the law “and you’re looking at a potential misdemeanor citation.”
Wilson confirmed to Knapp in a telephone conversation that even ordained ministers would be required to perform same-sex weddings, the lawsuit alleges.
(Excerpt) Read more at radio.foxnews.com ...
There’s the problem, right there.
Not all of us do, by the way.
“Free association” was part of the reason Goldwater and Tower voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but they both later recanted.
2% is roughly seven million. And maybe 6% of that 2% practice anything close to heterosexual monogamy. That is about 420,000.
exactly Lurking that was heir mistake. They figured it wouldn’t happen in a conservative state like Idaho. But they are already after the churches. They want to take that tax exempt status away so badly. Maybe that is what the churches need to do— all the social service programs etc that Christian groups run from Catholic Charities on down,(they are the biggest one)and dump it all in the states’ hands. That should send a big F##K YOU to all the socialists who want to control everything anyway. The government knows it would be screwed if the Christians got out of the charity business and just started doing charity on a congregation to congregation basis.
Sorry, I realized my math error while rethinking my post later that evening. Must be all the grey hair.
Place an order for Right-to-Life posters and literature with a printing company run by abortion enthusiasts.
Order NRA banners and posters with a company run by PETA fanatics or gun control nuts.
Lots of ways to fight back by forcing businesses run by science deniers/climate alarmists, socialism supporters, etc., etc. to act contrary to their beliefs.
Such businesses may be hard to find. MOST libtards avoid the work and risk of business to consume government checks, work in media, academia or law.
When Coeur d’Alene falls you know the end is near....is Sandpoint next?
Yeah, no kidding. That’s exactly how I feel about it.
I used to live there, and my son and his family still do.
The last bastion.
Hayden Lake will fall first.
I am friends with these minister’s two sons, both were members of the singles group I used to belong to. All are married and have multiple kids. I have met these people and they are fine Christians and nice as the day is long.
It is beyond sick that the Knapps are being targeted in this manner. I have my own solution...but I am not allowed to say it on FR.
I hear ya.
I’ve met Don a few times myself. He’s the close friend of a close friend.
Yea, but most don’t have the time or money to take such steps.
>> However, the chapel is also a for-profit business and city officials said that means the owners must comply with the local nondiscrimination ordinance.
>
> That's their mistake. Reincorporate as a church and avoid the problem.
Not necessary under the Idaho Constitution:
ARTICLE I, SECTION 4. GUARANTY OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.What we have here, plain and simple, is a government that refuses to be bound; this leads to one place —
The exercise and enjoyment of religious faith and worship shall forever be guaranteed; and no person shall be denied any civil or political right, privilege, or capacity on account of his religious opinions; but the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be construed to dispense with oaths or affirmations, or excuse acts of licentiousness or justify polygamous or other pernicious practices, inconsistent with morality or the peace or safety of the state; nor to permit any person, organization, or association to directly or indirectly aid or abet, counsel or advise any person to commit the crime of bigamy or polygamy, or any other crime. No person shall be required to attend or support any ministry or place of worship, religious sect or denomination, or pay tithes against his consent; nor shall any preference be given by law to any religious denomination or mode of worship. Bigamy and polygamy are forever prohibited in the state, and the legislature shall provide by law for the punishment of such crimes.
“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The good thing is, that this isn’t going to go anywhere. -————
I agree.
Itn't that all the more reason to do it?
Yeah boo, you’re back!
As predicted many times, this has always been their end goal: to infiltrate and corrupt the concept of "faith" and ultimately the Church itself.
It's been amazing to see the destruction 1.5% of the American population has done in just the past year alone. The swiftness has been breathtaking..
Were in the Constitution does it say that you have to be non-profit to exercise a right?
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