I have two questions: Would it still allow businesses that supply the wedding industry to stay in business? The percentage of business that bakers do for weddings might be relatively small. However, I imagine that florists make a lot of money off weddings. If most of the dues from a Christian Wedding Flowers Club don't end up in the hand of the florist then he might go out of business anyways. And if most of the club dues end up in his hands then there might be cause for the feds to decide it really isn't a club.
Also if your idea is workable for bakers & florists, is there a way it can be adapted for organizations that own property and need to rent it out in order to pay for the property taxes, etc.?
For example, a chapter of The Knights of Columbus that rents their hall out for wedding receptions, etc. Is there any hope that a similar strategy like yours could allow them to continue to host anything from bingo nights to wedding receptions without having to host gay receptions? I don't think those organizations could keep their properties if they only rented it out to club members and their associated friends and acquaintances.
The issue is in the creation of private clubs made for specific purposes. This is done all the time. Even in the corporate world, you can have a parent company with all sorts of associated companies that do specific things. And just because someone deals with one associated company, doesn’t mean they can deal with any other associated company.
Well, the same thing can be done with clubs. Yes, there are laws about what a club is and isn’t. Mainly the club has to stick to its proclaimed purpose, and not be used as a cover for something else. That’s why being up front abot this is so important. As for the money, again, if the money is for the stated purpose, everything is fine.
And this shouldn’t affect competition at all - the same people are buying the same things for the same purposes in the same marketplace. Some are doing it through clubs, some are not. The public is free to choose what they want to do.
This is nothing but a buyer’s club that serves certain churches. You don’t have to join a church or believe a certain religion to “get in.” It’s the reverse of that. If you’re alread IN these churches, then you can make use of the club.