RE: Ministers Threatened with Jail/Fines For Refusing to Officiate at Gay Weddings
October 22, 2014 at 12:50 pm
(October 22, 2014 at 12:45 pm)Jenny A Wrote:(October 22, 2014 at 12:29 pm)FatAndFaithless Wrote: Fair enough. But if these people are running this marriage service as a private business and not as a non-profit, they should follow the anti-discrimination business rules that everyone else has to follow. If they're a non-profit church, then of course they can't be forced to perform same-sex marriage.
I can't say I much like the Knapps' belief system. It's abhorrent (many religious beliefs are). And they are in violation of Idaho's anti-discrimination laws. The question is whether the the First Amendment, the RFRA, or other law gives them an out because of their religious beliefs.
This not like baking a cake for a wedding, or renting an apartment. The Knapps would actually be preforming a ceremony that they consider blasphemy. I think they have a case. I don't see that whether they are for profit or not matters to the RFFA or First Amendment.
Well, again I never brought up RFRA or the first amendment, just anti-discrimination laws. This idea isn't novel to this case though, there have been plenty of cases (like the wedding cakes and apartments that you mentioned) in which people have been forced to do something against their religion. I'm not sure what's so special about this ceremony, because I can guarantee the wedding cake people were just as vehement about their faith as this wedding ceremony business. They'd have a case about as powerful as the wedding cake people, because they're selling a product. Could they worm their way into an exception? Maybe.
In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson
- Thomas Jefferson