Clash of Freedoms – Prop 8 and Freedom of Religion, Speech and Association
In a previous post I talked about Proposition 8 in California and how many people view Prop 8 as a freedom of religion issue. Several of the commenters informed me that religious freedom was a red herring. Here is an excerpt:
So those at the top of the Yes-on-8 effort have tried desperately to cast this as being about religious freedom, despite the fact that the religious freedom is already guaranteed by the US Constitution, by the state constitution, and by the very state supreme court ruling that they are railing against. Their falsehoods are being carried along by well-intentioned folks who are deceived by them.
But it seems that there are some experts that would disagree with them. My brother, Trevor sent me this article:
"[Banned in Boston]"[2]
The article goes into more detail about the Catholic Charities case there (Catholic Charities ceased offering adoption services in Boston because they felt that, due to the legalization of gay marriage in Massachusetts, they would be forced to provide adoption services for gay couples, which would be contrary to their religious beliefs). I suggest you give it a read.
A few quick highlights from the article:
- The attempt to define gay marriage as a right is very much an attempt to setup sexual orientation as a protected class under the Constitution. Doing this would put sexual orientation on the same level as race, i.e. denying adoption to a gay couple would be equivalent to denying adoption to an African American couple.
- Though it is unlikely that religions will ever be overtly forced to do such things as perform gay marriages, they will have their non-profit status threatened if they refuse to do so. Basically, supporters of gay marriage who want to force religions to accept the practice will attempt to levy a "religious belief" tax on religious organizations, threatening removal of their tax-exempt status, costing them millions of dollars. They will be told, "Accept gay marriage and you can stay tax exempt, deny it and you lose the status." Sounds like a very conditional form of religious freedom. Don't believe me? Read the article.
If you want a more detailed explanation from one of the religious organizations supporting Prop 8, the LDS church (of which I am a member) has an excellent article detailing their stance and the reasons for their support of Prop 8. As I have stated previously they, nor I, am opposed to legal rights being offered to domestic partnerships. But redefining the word marriage has far reaching consequences as outlined in both articles mentioned above.
