Separation of Church and State? Pastors Forced to Officiate Same-Sex Weddings

“What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.”

— Lord Melbourne

     Remember how proponents of Same-Sex Marriage said that even though they will force businesses to endorse and help celebrate Same-Sex Marriage, they were not going to force churches to endorse it contrary to their religious teachings?

Yup, that was a lie.

     A Minister, in Idaho of all places, it now being forced to officiate Same-Sex Weddings or go to jail:

“City officials told Donald Knapp that he and his wife Evelyn, both ordained ministers who run Hitching Post Wedding Chapel, are required to perform such ceremonies or face months in jail and/or thousands of dollars in fines. The city claims its ‘non-discrimination’ ordinance requires the Knapps to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies now that the courts have overridden Idaho’s voter-approved constitutional amendment that affirmed marriage as the union of a man and a woman.”

“‘The government should not force ordained ministers to act contrary to their faith under threat of jail time and criminal fines,’ said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco. ‘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. The city is on seriously flawed legal ground, and our lawsuit intends to ensure that this couple’s freedom to adhere to their own faith as pastors is protected just as the First Amendment intended.’

“‘The government exists to protect and respect our freedoms, not attack them,’ Tedesco added. ‘The city cannot erase these fundamental freedoms and replace them with government coercion and intolerance.'”

     When the state can “balance” your rights, be they inalienable rights to made-up rights, they can “balance” them away.  In effect, you have no “right” unless the state says you do.  This is the ultimate goal of the Progressive Left.  Only the collective has rights, and the “collective” decides what those rights are.  Since the “collective” would never oppress itself, any denial of inalienable rights could never be “oppression.”

     This, of course, is contrary to what the Bill of Rights, whose preamble explicitly states:

“[That] in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution”

     Sadly, even the Bill of Rights may no longer protect us.  In other Anglo-sphere countries, “hate” speech has been banned and the government is free to silence dissent, no matter how truthful… and even ban quoting the Bible.

     The Progressive Left in America have gotten around the Bill of Rights by declaring that one must surrender their inalienable rights in order to earn a living.  You can be forced to celebrate and participate in events you morally oppose, and even be forced to help propagandize such beliefs.  You can be barred from employment or even from elected office for disagreeing with Gay Marriage.

     You can even be fired for private speech that is “bigoted,” or even of defending another’s right to free speech!  While a private company has a hypothetical right to fire people who disagree with its “beliefs,” is there any doubt that a company that fires someone for privately supporting Same-Sex Marriage would be sued out of existence, while a company that fires someone for privately disagreeing with Same-Sex Marriage would not?

     With the creeping belief that lack of sufficient affirmation is discrimination, and creates a hostile work environment.  Those with incorrect thinking will be ferreted out, and private beliefs will be exposed (so much for the “right to privacy”).

     The precedents to force correct thinking and punish incorrect thinking in all spheres of like in the name of “social justice” have been established.  Freedom, for the Left, is just an excuse to get what they want to be discarded when no longer useful.

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