NJ Stalls Same-Sex Marriage Bill to Kill Religious Protections
by Ken Klukowski 18 Dec 2013, 3:03
PM PDT
Many people ask, “How does gay
marriage negatively impact me?” New
Jersey lawmakers just proved it’s a lie to say all same-sex marriage advocates merely want
a “live and let live” legal environment.
Legislators pulled their pending
bill to legalize same-sex marriage in the Garden State
in response to its supporters’ demand to strip the bill of language that would
allow Christians and other people of faith to decline to recognize gay
marriages on religious grounds.
New Jersey’s legislature is moving a bill to redefine marriage to
include same-sex couples. Although likely to pass, Democratic Senate Majority
Leader Loretta Weinberg pulled the bill that she was supporting because of
objections from gay-rights organizations such as Lamba Legal.
The reason? Weinberg explained,
“They don’t want any kind of religious exemption, so out of respect for that, I
will [pull the bill] (emphasis added).” The bill would have allowed houses of
worship and people of faith, such as churches and observant Christians, to
decline to participate in any way with gay marriage. In a state where they can
have their way, some gay-rights supporters are demanding that the law allow for
full and vigorous prosecution under anti-discrimination and
public-accommodation laws of anyone who will not embrace and celebrate
homosexual marriage.
We already see what happens where
such protections are lacking. In Michigan and Georgia,
graduate students were expelled from counseling programs for refusing to affirm
gay marriage. In Vermont,
a bed and breakfast was sued for not allowing a same-sex wedding reception in
its banquet hall. And in a case now being offered to the U.S. Supreme Court,
Elane Photography v. Willock, a financial penalty was imposed on a Christian
photographer for declining to photograph a same-sex commitment ceremony.
The most egregious of these situations
can even involve criminal prosecution. In Washington State,
a criminal investigation was launched into a florist for not making flower
arrangements for a same-sex wedding. Also, in the Colorado case of Craig v.
Masterpiece Cakeshop, owner Jack Phillips faces possible criminal prosecution
or being sent to jail for contempt of court for not baking a wedding cake
celebrating same-sex marriage (even though Colorado law does not recognize
same-sex marriage).
This will lead to civil
disobedience. For millions of devout Christians and observant members of other
faiths, marriage is the union of a man and woman. They cannot with a clear
conscience participate in any way in a redefinition of marriage to include
behavior or self-identification that their religious faith believes to be
immoral. Whether pastors or laypeople, church buildings or secular businesses,
many millions of faithful Americans will not betray their God and their faiths,
no matter what the government threatens.
Once the government puts a single
Christian behind bars for anything arising in this context, it crosses the line
into persecution. The U.S. Constitution secures a fundamental right to freely
exercise one's religion in every area of one's life and engage in faith-based
speech, while there is no right to demand that others celebrate your sexual
behavior and accommodate whatever demands you make. The former is written into
the text of the Constitution in the First Amendment, while the latter is not
found anywhere.
Anti-Christian persecution has
never happened en masse in America—a
great blessing, as Christians living in fundamentalist Islamist countries or
under totalitarian states like North
Korea can face gruesome executions for their
faith. However, laws like the proposed New Jersey
law threaten—at minimum—that for the first time in U.S. history, believers could be
fined and imprisoned if they refuse to follow court orders such as baking a
wedding cake. Should those cases occur in modern America, these instances will be
carried on television and online. There will be no ignoring it, no matter how
hard the media tries to bury it.
This week’s events in New Jersey show that
militant advocates of gay rights only use religious exemptions as a way to
divide opposition in situations where they cannot achieve complete victory. In
New Jersey they believe they can, and the fact that Gov. Chris Christie has not
publicly denounced and forced into primetime news what amounts to an open
attempt to set the stage for all-out war on Christians in his state shows that
too many Republicans cannot be expected to defend people of faith against this
take-no-prisoners onslaught.
Same-Sex Marriage
Clifford S.
Asness supported same-sex marriage
in New York, a leadership council member at
the Robin Hood Foundation, and is a
director at the International Rescue
Committee.
Note: Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Robin Hood Foundation, and the International
Rescue Committee.
George
Soros is the chairman for the Foundation
to Promote Open Society, and was a benefactor for the Harlem Children's Zone.
Michael R.
Bloomberg was a donor for the Robin
Hood Foundation, a benefactor for the Harlem
Children's Zone, and is the New York (NY) mayor.
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