RE: Ministers Threatened with Jail/Fines For Refusing to Officiate at Gay Weddings
October 22, 2014 at 10:09 am
(October 22, 2014 at 9:10 am)Heywood Wrote: Freedom of Religion has been around a lot longer than anti-discrimination laws.
This is an irrelevant point. The right to bar minorities from one's business was around since before the Civil War, it was removed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and in a place of public business there is no extant right to do so, no matter how long that right had been in place. Laws aren't granted seniority based on time in service.
(October 22, 2014 at 9:10 am)Heywood Wrote: Free exercise of religion trumps anti-discrimination laws as evidenced by the numerous ministerial exceptions the courts say exists.
These ministers have every right to refuse gay marriages in any church they wish to start, so far as I can see; and that's a right of refusal I would defend, even though I am pro-marriage equality.
(October 22, 2014 at 9:10 am)Heywood Wrote: The government cannot force a minister to preform a religious ceremony against his will.
The government can force him to conduct business in a non-discriminatory manner. Perhaps if they weren't acting like the moneychangers in the Temple, they'd have a better leg to stand on?
A business should be a non-prophet organization. Introducing money into the equation naturally calls into question the sincerity of their convictions, to my mind.
