Idaho city’s ordinance tells pastors to marry gays or go to jailThe signs are clear: The top officials are scofflaws with impunity; Christians are being driven out of business and off the public square despite constitutional protection. The imbalance between immorality and morality has been pushed beyond the tipping point, and we can expect immorality to hold sway for the indefinite future. When the pendulum swings toward its limit in the direction of immorality, anarchy and chaos can be anticipated. And it's all in the name of equality and tolerance.
Coeur d‘Alene, Idaho, city officials have laid down the law to Christian pastors within their community, telling them bluntly via an ordinance that if they refuse to marry homosexuals, they will face jail time and fines.
The dictate comes on the heels of a legal battle with Donald and Evelyn Knapp, ordained ministers who own the Hitching Post wedding chapel in the city, but who oppose gay marriage, The Daily Caller reported.
A federal judge recently ruled that the state’s ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional, while the city of Coeur d‘Alene has an ordinance that prevents discrimination based on sexual preference.
The Supreme Court’s recent refusal to take on gay rights’ appeals from five states has opened the doors for same-sex marriages to go forth.
The Knapps were just asked by a gay couple to perform their wedding ceremony, The Daily Caller reported.
“On Friday, a same-sex couple asked to be married by the Knapps, and the Knapps politely declined,” The Daily Signal reported. “The Knapps now face a 180-day jail term and a $1,000 fine for each day they decline to celebrate the same-sex wedding.”
The Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a suit in federal court to stop the city from enforcing the fine and jail sentence, saying in a statement from senior legal counsel Jeremy Tedesco that the government has overstepped its bounds, The Daily Caller reported.
“Many have denied that pastors would ever be forced to perform ceremonies that are completely at odds with their faith, but that’s what is happening here — and it’s happened this quickly,” Mr. Tedersco said, The Daily Caller reported.
But the city sees it differently. As far back as May, city officials were insisting that their ordinance is indeed in line with law.
“If you turn away a gay couple, refuse to provide services for them, then in theory you violated our code, and you’re looking at a potential misdemeanor citation,” said Coeur d‘Alene City Attorney Warren Wilson, to KXLY months ago.
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Christianity Is Illegal In Coeur D'Alene
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2 comments:
Wait. I know pastors who refuse to marry previously married couples. This is categorically NOT a matter of a public service. Pastors and priests have reserved the right to marry whom they chose. This is now a clear violation. Just like an adulterous couple can go get a justice of the peace to hitch them up, so too can gays in a place were gay marriage is legal. It is ludicrous to call this discrimination. Then again, I'm trying to interject logic into it.
"Then again, I'm trying to interject logic into it."
Here's an argument I use on occasion.
Imaging the following couples walking into the Kapps' Hitching Post to get married. Which couples will the Knapps accomodate? (SM = Straight Male, etc.)
SM-SF
SM-SM
GM-GF
GM-GM
SF-SF
GF-GF
etc.
Now there IS an easily detectible pattern in the above, and if you're having difficulty seeing it, you may be too firmly wedded to your homophobia narrative.
The argument rarely works because, in fact, they ARE firmly wedded to their homophobia narrative. But at least the logic is out there for those of open mind to see.
And there's also the analogy to interracial marriage, which similarly runs in terror from the first sight of logic. Given that the whole issue of interracial marriage was part and parcel of a society-wide pattern of discrimination, one should be asking, where are the parallel calls for segregated bathrooms for homosexuals? Separate-but-equal schools? Back-of-the-bus seating? Employment discrimination? Jim Crow laws for gays? If your answer is it's just Christians very cleverly hiding their bigotry behind a false facade of tolerance, then once again you might want to re-check your assumptions.
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