RE: [Church_of_Christ] Re: Questions on Marriage
Jonathon writes:
Based on what you write, I doubt you'll accept that political reality,
until your congregation has been ordered by the court to pay damages
to at least a dozen gay couples for the _crime_ of refusing to marry
them, and thus violating their rights.
Brian's Response:
I doubt it would get to that point but if it did, we would be very far afield from the current state of the law. Our courts, all the way up through the Supreme hold the First Amendment and freedom of association in very high regard. Even over the last few decades in an political environment focused on eliminating various forms of discrimination (gender, race, sexual orientation, national origin, etc.), the courts, including the Supreme Court, have been very protective of freedom of association, particularly for religious groups and political parties. The Boy Scouts are a very prime example of this principle. They are a private group and their right to exclude on the basis of orientation has been upheld. Another example is the right of religious education institutions, from the ACU's down to the church of Christ preschool down the road, to insist on church members in their hiring practices. Courts consistently uphold this type of "discrimination" on grounds of the free exercise clause so that churches are not forced to associate with beliefs contrary to their religion. For a more apt analogy, a protestant couple would have no grouds for suing the Catholic Church simply because the church will only perform weddings for Catholics. In the same respect, I find it highly unlikely that a gay couple would be able to sue a church for refusing to marry them.
In Him,
Brian B.
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