{"id":2726,"date":"2012-12-03T07:05:44","date_gmt":"2012-12-03T12:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tmatt.net\/?p=2726"},"modified":"2012-12-03T07:05:44","modified_gmt":"2012-12-03T12:05:44","slug":"secular-unions-vs-holy-matrimony-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/12\/secular-unions-vs-holy-matrimony-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Secular unions vs. Holy Matrimony, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:<\/strong> This is the second of two columns on current debates about Holy Matrimony and civil unions.<\/p>\n

Gay-rights advocates know the formula and so do their opponents: If gay marriage becomes a civil right, then religious believers who dare to defend ancient doctrines on marriage will become de facto segregationists and suffer the legal consequences.<\/p>\n

The problem for the left is that this happens to be true.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore we shrug and reply, \u2018So what if it\u2019s religious? It\u2019s still bigotry, it\u2019s still intolerable,\u2019 we need to remember that religious liberty is America\u2019s founding principle. It is embedded in the country\u2019s DNA, not to mention in the First Amendment,\u201d argued gay commentator Jonathon Rauch<\/a>, writing in The Advocate<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we pick a fight with it or, worse, let ourselves be maneuvered into a fight with it, our task will become vastly harder. \u2026 Even if you don\u2019t happen to believe, as I do, that religious liberty is, like gay equality, a basic human right, the pragmatic case for religious accommodations is clear: Being seen as a threat to religious freedom is not in our interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the state of things, as the U.S. Supreme Court ponders whether the time is right to address this hot-button topic. Meanwhile, gay-rights groups recently won several ballot-box victories in liberal zip codes.<\/p>\n

Some conservatives have proposed radical strategies in response, such as scholar George Weigel\u2019s suggestion that it may be time for the Catholic church to \u201cpreemptively withdraw from the civil marriage business, its clergy declining to act as agents of government in witnessing marriages for purposes of state law.\u201d<\/p>\n

That would be a powerful symbolic gesture, but \u201ctaking that action would do nothing to resolve the religious-liberty issues that are causing conflicts here in America, or will cause additional conflicts in the future,\u201d said Stanley Carlson-Thies, director of the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance<\/a>. Even if traditional religious leaders attempt to legally separate Holy Matrimony from secular marriage, it is still the government\u2019s definition of marriage that will decide a variety of issues outside sanctuary doors, especially in public life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other question, \u201d he said, \u201cis whether those on the cultural left will be willing, at this point, to settle for civil unions. \u2026 We will need people on both sides to work together if there are going to be meaningful compromises.\u201d<\/p>\n

One divisive issue in these gay-marriage debates overlaps with current fights over White House mandates requiring most religious institutions to offer health-care plans covering sterilizations and all FDA-approved forms of contraception, including so-called \u201cmorning-after pills.\u201d These Health and Human Services requirements recognize the conscience rights of employers only if they are nonprofits that have the \u201cinculcation of religious values\u201d as their primary purpose, primarily employ \u201cpersons who share \u2026 religious tenets\u201d and primarily serve those \u201cwho share \u2026 religious tenets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Critics insist this protects mere \u201cfreedom of worship,\u201d not the First Amendment\u2019s wider \u201cfree exercise of religion.\u201d <\/p>\n

Here is the parallel: In gay-marriage debates, almost everyone concedes that clergy must not be required to perform same-sex rites that violate their consciences.<\/p>\n

The question is whether legislatures and courts will extend protection to religious hospitals, homeless shelters, summer camps, day-care centers, counseling facilities, adoption agencies and similar public ministries. What about religious colleges that rent married-student apartments or seek accreditation for their degrees in education, counseling or social work? What about the religious-liberty rights of individuals who work as florists, wedding photographers, wedding-cake bakers, counselors who do pre- or post-marital counseling and other similar forms of business?<\/p>\n

These are only some of the thorny issues that worry many activists on both sides of the gay-rights divide. Law professor Douglas Laycock, then of the University of Michigan, provided this summary in a letter to the governor of New Hampshire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI support same-sex marriage,\u201d he stressed. Nevertheless, the \u201cnet effect for human liberty will be no better than a wash if same-sex couples now oppress religious dissenters in the same way that those dissenters, when they had the power to do so, treated same-sex couples in ways that those couples found oppressive.<\/p>\n

\u201cNor is it in the interest of the gay and lesbian community to create religious martyrs in the enforcement of this bill. \u2026 Every such case will be in the news repeatedly, and every such story will further inflame the opponents of same-sex marriage. Refusing exemptions to such religious dissenters will politically empower the most demagogic opponents of same-sex marriage. It will ensure that the issue remains alive, bitter, and deeply divisive.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: This is the second of two columns on current debates about Holy Matrimony and civil unions. Gay-rights advocates know the formula and so do their opponents: If gay marriage becomes a civil right, then religious believers who dare to defend ancient doctrines on marriage will become de facto segregationists and suffer the legal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[120,373,374,380,425,729,766,883,884],"class_list":["post-2726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-godbeat","tag-bill-of-rights","tag-free-speech","tag-freedom-of-association","tag-gay-rights","tag-higher-education","tag-religious-liberty","tag-same-sex-marriage","tag-u-s-constitution","tag-u-s-supreme-court"],"yoast_head":"\nSecular unions vs. Holy Matrimony, Part II<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: This is the second of two columns on current debates about Holy Matrimony and civil unions. 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