How often have we heard the argument in favor of same-sex marriage framed as one of freedom as in “freedom to marry.” Increasingly, it seems that it means freedom for me but not for thee.
But now two ordained ministers from Idaho are facing fines or jail time for refusing to perform same-sex marriages.
Ryan Anderson writes:
The Idaho case involves Donald and Evelyn Knapp, both ordained ministers, who run Hitching Post Wedding Chapel. Officials from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, told the couple that because the city has a non-discrimination statute that includes sexual orientation and gender identity, and because the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Idaho’s constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman, the couple would have to officiate at same-sex weddings in their own chapel.
The non-discrimination statute applies to all “public accommodations,” and the city views the chapel as a public accommodation.
On Friday, a same-sex couple asked to be married by the Knapps, and the Knapps politely declined. The Knapps now face a 180-day jail term and $1,000 fine for each day they decline to celebrate the same-sex wedding.
A week of honoring their faith and declining to perform the ceremony could cost the couple three and a half years in jail and $7,000 in fines.
Last week, A North Carolina official resigned Thursday rather than perform gay marriages. I see that. The guy has a job. He refuses to do the job so he resigns. That makes sense.
But these folks aren’t public officials. They’re ordained ministers. And if people want to get married they don’t need these two to do it.
Increasingly, the secularist agenda seems to mean the end of liberty.
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