Gay Marriage Baked in the Cake
The Supreme Court is considering whether same sex marriage is a constitutional right. Many court experts think it’s already baked in the cake. American tolerance of homosexuality has improved dramatically in a short time. Does the tolerance go both ways?
LGBT activists recently shunned and boycotted a prominent gay couple for hosting Ted Cruz for a discussion about gay marriage and the Middle East. A Christian couple in Oregon lost their bakery when they refused to bake a cake for a same sex wedding. Then a judge fined them $135000. They were kicked off GoFundMe where they were raising funds to pay the fine.
During oral arguments last week Alito asked if churches could lose their tax exempt status if they refuse to perform gay weddings. The government lawyer said it would be “an issue”.
It’s quite appropriate how you chose a heterosexual white male christian conservative justice to ask your question. Was this intentional?
Try replacing the word “Gay” on the box with “interracial” or “interfaith” and see how that plays.
It was intentional. Bob Jones university lost its tax exemption because of its policy against interracial dating (nasty, as you point out). Alito asked if the Jones precedent would apply to religious groups apposed to same sex marriage.
If SCOTUS rules the right as a constitional right, I do not see it being a problem for the religious groups tax status.
A public policy could be made that all civil unions must go thru City Hall/designated place. Thus church would not be accountable for not marrying those under the civil union.
Once civil union is complete, the couple who wish to be married under their religion could be married in the church provided they meet the churches requirement.