Government to Ordained Ministers: Celebrate Same-Sex Wedding or Go to Jail
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.
This post is not intended to open a discussion on who can marry who.. and anyone making comments in this regard… will be DELETED !
This is about how our legal system addresses some types of discrimination… some they impose fines.. such as this issue and in other issues .. and condoning others such as denying those with subjective diseases to get treatment without any consequences.
Wasn’t there something in our Constitution about Freedom to practice our Religion ?
Filed under: General Problems
Just another example of how ‘out of whack’ is our legal system. The video link posted here about the undercover narcotic officer telling about the 70’s and college students smoking a joint is a prime example. When one of them passed the joint to the narc, he would arrest the guy and he would be sentenced to 7 years in prison. So, here are a couple of preachers refusing to marry someone and they are facing over 3 years in jail. What kind of legal system is this? There were more uniform laws during the reign of the Babylonian king Hammurabi. He had a fixed sentence for each crime. In the US, you might smoke a joint and get 7 years in prison, which might be longer than if you murdered someone. Steal a $100 and go to prison for several years; but, steal millions and you get a fine. The CVS/Caremark and medicaid fraud is an example. The more laws and the bigger our government gets, the more individual freedoms we lose.