Idaho city’s ordinance tells pastors to marry gays or go to jail

From the Washington Times:

"Coeur d‘Alene, Idaho, city officials have laid down the law to Christian pastors within their community, telling them bluntly via an ordinance that if they refuse to marry homosexuals, they will face jail time and fines."

I am declining to provide any spin or commentary on the article. However, I will engage in the discussion once it begins.

Note [correction]: this article was from October 2014.

a reply to: rationalconsumer

Freedom of Religon should trump this ... assuming their is the money to take it the SCOTUS and assuming Justice Kennedy still values the 1st Amendment.

It is pretty sad that no one will question how the other justices would rule in this case.

a reply to: rationalconsumer

As a gay man I say "NO....NO....NO". They better not face ANY government backlash or we lost the fight........

How many gay weddings are being held at mosques these days?

originally posted by: rationalconsumer
From the Washington Times:

"Coeur d‘Alene, Idaho, city officials have laid down the law to Christian pastors within their community, telling them bluntly via an ordinance that if they refuse to marry homosexuals, they will face jail time and fines."

I am declining to provide any spin or commentary on the article. However, I will engage in the discussion once it begins.

I'll bite.

We have no right to force a christian pastor, revend or whatever to marry gay people. The Bible is very adamant about gay people. It is their right to refuse, if we allow their religion.

Like it is our right to tell them how wrong they are and their stance collides with many of their own preachings.
Judge not lest you.....
Turn the other cheek.
Let the innocent cast the first stone
Be compassionate

Bla bla

What then is our right is to refuse any form of public funding to their archaic belief system. And also refuse tax deductions, as that is public funding as well.

What they will eventually do, is to find the part of scripture that twisted a bit, will allow for gay marriages.
Job done.

Separation of church and state?

I'm fine with gay marriage but come on you can't totally force people's hands to go against their beliefs.

You don't need a church or pastor to legally marry.

a reply to: HolgerTheDane2

So no coercion, but coercion?

The only reason churches are tax exempt is because of the income tax. Taxes are used to coerce all the time. What do you think the Obamacare penalty/tax is?

So basically by saying remove tax exemption, you want them to be coerced when you just made a big statement about NOT coercing them or you lose the fight.

Thanks for playing.

a reply to: TheLieWeLive

But it socially acceptable to hate on Christian beliefs while holding other religions in some sort of special place.

a reply to: Lysergic

How many gay muslims are there these days?

a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

So your saying the answer is to simply not allow gays in your religion?

i was also under the impression that the state has no jurisdiction regarding religion and church law trumps state every time? both here in UK and in the US a cleric of any faith can and must carry out the doctrine of their faith
and providing its not breaking criminal law the state has no say in the matter period.

the city,council, state, congress, house, parliament or whoever has no right to tell a cleric what service he may
or may not perform in his place of worship.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: HolgerTheDane2

So no coercion, but coercion?

The only reason churches are tax exempt is because of the income tax. Taxes are used to coerce all the time. What do you think the Obamacare penalty/tax is?

So basically by saying remove tax exemption, you want them to be coerced when you just made a big statement about NOT coercing them or you lose the fight.

Thanks for playing.

To be fair I never said anything about loosing any fight.
So of your snide remark was based on that, it was wrong.

originally posted by: CharlieSpeirs
a reply to: Lysergic

How many gay muslims are there these days?

How many gay Christians?

equal numbers?

a reply to: ketsuko

I asked a question...
So I don't see how it could be considered the answer to anything.


To answer your point...
It's antithetical to be gay and a Muslim.


All in all, nobody should be forced to marry anyone...
Church, Mosque or Synagogue.

I think that it depends on the paradigm that you accept: is taxation a given, and therefore tax breaks are a benefit that, upon acceptance, requires that party to accept other laws and restrictions? My practical mind says that this is the case, and that all non-taxed institutions must follow the same rules of non-discrimination. The other paradigm is more complicated: a society that is inherently unjust, and therefore the jailing of anyone, even for discrimination, is wrong. In both worldviews, I think, that the common element is that discrimination is wrong. If we can all agree on that, then we can definitely agree that the state shouldn't be able to do this. If you don't see discrimination, then I think that there's more wrong with you than with the government's actions in this case.

a reply to: Lysergic

Depends what you mean by Christian...

If you mean a follower of Christ's teaching, who knows...

If you mean those who respect the entire Holy Bible...

Exactly zero gay Christians.

originally posted by: CharlieSpeirs
a reply to: ketsuko

I asked a question...
So I don't see how it could be considered the answer to anything.


To answer your point...
It's antithetical to be gay and a Muslim.


All in all, nobody should be forced to marry anyone...
Church, Mosque or Synagogue.

As long as a pastor is not sanctioned by the state to sign a marriage license or state-recognized document in any way, then that's okay.

Spin or commentary? Should have at least mentioned that this news is actually from last year after the Ninth circuit court overturned the Idaho ban on gay marriage.- see here.

This source says the article is a mixture of fact and fiction.

originally posted by: CharlieSpeirs
a reply to: Lysergic

Depends what you mean by Christian...

If you mean a follower of Christ's teaching, who knows...

If you mean those who respect the entire Holy Bible...

Exactly zero gay Christians.

Excellent, so what was your point?