City in Idaho may arrest two ministers for not performing gay weddings

City in Idaho may arrest two ministers for not performing gay weddings

dnldevlynknpHow far is the tyranny over gay marriage going to go? Reasonable people can differ on gay marriage. But forcing people to go against their religious views in order to comply with one viewpoint is nothing more than harassment. 

According to Todd Starnes at Weasel Zippers,

Two Christian ministers who own an Idaho wedding chapel were told they had to either perform same-sex weddings or face jail time and up to $1,000 in daily fines, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court.

Alliance Defending Freedom is representing Donald and Evelyn Knapp, two ordained ministers who own the Hitching Post Wedding Chapel in Coeur d’Alene.

“Right now they are at risk of being prosecuted,” attorney Jeremy Tedesco told me. “The threat of enforcement is more than just credible.”

The wedding chapel is registered as a “religious corporation” limited to performing “one-man-one-woman marriages as defined by the Holy Bible.”

The city attorney has told the local newspaper that he believes the chapel falls under the ordinance. A man called the chapel asking about a gay wedding ceremony, and the chapel declined, which put them in violation of the law. It would be terrible to prosecute this elderly couple.  Law enforcement and prosecutors already have strained resources. To target people like this who merely are exercising their religious freedom – and it’s not like the gay couple couldn’t go somewhere else – is a gross misuse of government resources.

Rachel Alexander

Rachel Alexander is the editor of Intellectual Conservative. She is a senior editor at The Stream, and is a regular contributor to Townhall, the Selous Foundation for Public Policy Research, and The Christian Post, and provides weekend news items for Right Wing News. She frequently appears on TV and news radio as a conservative commentator. She is a recovering attorney and former gun magazine editor. She previously served as a former Assistant Attorney General for the State of Arizona, corporate attorney for Go Daddy Software, and Special Assistant/Deputy County Attorney for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. As co-president of the UW Political Science Honor Society, she obtained degrees in Political Science and History from the University of Washington, followed by a law degree from Boston College and the University of Arizona. She was ranked by Right Wing News as one of the 50 Best Conservative Columnists from 2011-2017.

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