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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Updated Policy for Religious Expression in the Military

Religious Freedom, ,

Last week the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) approved a new policy to allow accommodation for religious expression in the military.

“The new policy states that military departments will accommodate religious requests of service members, unless a request would have an adverse effect on military readiness, mission accomplishment, unit cohesion,” U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Nathan Christensen, a Pentagon spokesman, said.

The policy was mainly expected to affect Sikhs, Muslims, Jews, and members of other groups that wear beards or articles of clothing as part of their religion.  Accommodation will have to be requested with each change in assignment and will be determined by the new unit’s commander to assure that physical appearances “do not interfere with good order and discipline.”

Many are cautiously optimistic that the DOD’s new directive will protect service members’ freedom to practice and express their faith.

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Should the Government Force You to Bake Cake?

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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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