Same-Sex Marriage Increases Potential Conflicts with Religious Freedom

Religious Freedom, , ,

Justice Scalia in his dissenting opinion on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 DOMA ruling.

Heritage Foundation has published a research piece examining the potential for conflict between religious liberty and same-sex “marriage.”

We have written about examples of this conflict before–specifically when it comes to bakers, florists, and photographers forced by courts to participate in same-sex weddings or face severe penalties. In fact, this loss of religious liberty was called by one judge, “the price of citizenship.”

Heritage Foundation writes,

“Legal recognition of same-sex marriage will increase the potential for conflicts with religious freedom. The recent Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Windsor intensifies these concerns by characterizing traditional marriage policy as a form of irrational prejudice.”

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Should the Government Force You to Bake Cake?

Religious Freedom, ,

Should gay people be able to force Christian business owners to violate their religious beliefs? Liberal judges seem to think so.

We’ve heard stories about photographers, bakers, or Christian camp operators being forced by judges to accommodate gay weddings. Never mind the fact that these individuals have clear religious convictions about marriage and homosexuality. Some have found themselves in court, where judges fined them and told them they had to do business with same-sex couples in spite of their religious beliefs.

What person, gay or straight, would want their wedding photographed by a person being forced to take their picture? I can only imagine the quality of the photos. Would you want to eat a wedding cake that a judge had forced someone to bake for you? Of course not.

The goal is not pictures or cake. The real goal is to use the courts to impose a social and political agenda on people who oppose that agenda—people who oppose it not because of arbitrary bias, but because of a sincerely-held religious belief.

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Arkansas’ Marriage Amendment Still Stands Despite Oklahoma Ruling

Marriage, ,

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, January 15, 2014

On Tuesday, a federal judge in Oklahoma struck Oklahoma’s marriage amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman, calling the ban “arbitrary.”

On Wednesday Family Council President Jerry Cox issued a statement, saying, “This ruling does not affect Arkansas’ marriage amendment. Arkansas’ ban on same-sex marriage still stands.”

Cox said while the ruling is disappointing, it is not entirely surprising. “Activists have filed over a dozen lawsuits across the country challenging state marriage amendments in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s DOMA decision last summer. It is not surprising out of that many lawsuits they would find one or two federal judges willing to strike down a state marriage amendment. It’s also likely many judges will uphold these amendments as constitutional. Either way, this issue will not be settled until it makes its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Cox said contrary to what many are saying, same-sex marriage is not a forgone conclusion. “The U.S. Supreme Court signaled that state marriage laws ought to be respected when it put a stay on a federal judge’s ruling that struck Utah’s same-sex marriage ban last month. When the court struck part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act last summer, the court said states—not the federal government—define marriage. If the U.S. Supreme Court were to go a step farther and say these state marriage amendments are unconstitutional, it would effectively be saying that neither the state nor the federal government has the right to define marriage. That just wouldn’t make sense.”

Cox said he expects more rulings on state marriage amendments in the coming weeks. “Eventually, the U.S. Supreme Court will address this issue. There’s no doubt about that. It will be a sad day if the Supreme Court disenfranchises millions of voters in over thirty states by striking their state marriage amendments.”

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