[bookport] Re: Fw: BreakPoint: Same-Sex 'Marriage' and Religious Liberty, 5/12/09
- From: "John Melia" <unclejam@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 12 May 2009 20:45:24 -0400
BreakPoint: Same-Sex 'Marriage' and Religious Liberty, 5/12/09 - 5/12/2009
11:29:48 AMI am sorry I did not mean to send this to this list .
----- Original Message -----
From: John Melia
To: pastormike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ; secretary@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ; Dean C Hegarty
; bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ; bsimon7@xxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 8:41 PM
Subject: [bookport] Fw: BreakPoint: Same-Sex 'Marriage' and Religious
Liberty, 5/12/09
----- Original Message -----
From: BreakPoint
To: unclejam@xxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 11:11 AM
Subject: BreakPoint: Same-Sex 'Marriage' and Religious Liberty, 5/12/09
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Same-Sex 'Marriage' and Religious Liberty
Why They Can't Coexist
May 12, 2009
As more states-like Iowa-approve same-sex
"marriage," conservatives are claiming that freedom of religion is in peril.
Same-sex "marriage" supporters accuse them of engaging in hysterical
gay-bating. Who's telling the truth?
Let me share some stories with you from an
excellent news broadcast produced by National Public Radio. Then you decide.
Two women decided to hold their civil union
ceremony at a New Jersey pavilion owned by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting
Association. This Methodist group told the women they could not "marry" in any
building used for religious purposes. The Rev. Scott Hoffman said a theological
principle-that marriage can only exist between one man and one woman-was at
stake.
The women filed a discrimination complaint with
the New Jersey Division of Civil Rights. The Methodists said the First
Amendment protected their right to practice their faith without being punished
by the government. But punish the Methodists is exactly what New Jersey did. It
revoked their tax exemption-a move that cost them $20,000.
Then there's the case of the Christian
physicians who refused to provide in vitro fertilization treatment to a woman
in a lesbian relationship. The doctors referred her to their partners, who were
willing to provide the treatment. But that wasn't good enough. The woman sued.
The California Supreme Court agreed with the woman, saying that the doctors'
religious beliefs didn't give them the right to refuse the controversial
treatment.
In Massachusetts, Catholic Charities was told
they had to accept homosexual couples in their adoption service, or get out of
the adoption business. They chose correctly-get out of the business.
In Mississippi, a mental health counselor was
sued for refusing to provide therapy to a woman looking to improve her lesbian
relationship. The counselor's employers fired her-a move that was backed up by
the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
In New York, the Albert Einstein College of
Medicine at Yeshiva University refused to allow same-sex couples to live in
married student housing, in keeping with the school's orthodox Jewish
teachings. But in 2001, the New York State Supreme Court forced them to do so
anyway-even though New York has no same-sex "marriage" law.
In Albuquerque, a same-sex couple asked a
Christian wedding photographer to film their commitment ceremony-and sued the
photographer when she declined. An online adoption service was forced to stop
doing business in California when a same-sex couple sued the service for
refusing, on religious grounds, to assist them.
Convinced? Clearly, homosexual "marriage" and
religious liberty cannot co-exist-because gay activists will not allow them to.
As marriage expert Maggie Gallagher puts it, same-sex "marriage" advocates
claim that religious faith "itself is a form of bigotry."
Tune in tomorrow, for I want you to learn how
you can help protect both our religious rights and marriage itself. I know this
may sound alarmist, but it's true. If we don't work to stop this juggernaut, we
may soon find ourselves hunted down at work, at school, and even at church-as
others have been-by those determined to force us to accept as a moral good what
God calls evil.
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