SPRINGFIELD – With a Democrat-controlled Illinois legislature, there's no chance that a bill that passed the Texas Senate last week could ever get a serious hearing in Illinois' Capitol – but it's just good to know there are places in America that still adhere to our Founding Fathers' concept of religious freedom.
The Republican majority of the Texas Senate agreed to move forward legislation that would grant county clerks, judges and various other public personnel the option of recusing themselves from implementing same sex marriages.
"If we don't do this, we are discriminating against people of faith," said the sponsor, Sen. Brian Birdwell. He was referring to clerks, judges, justices of the peace and other elected officials empowered to issue marriage licenses in Texas' 254 counties.
Laws like the one moving forward in Texas have been stopped at the state's top court level, but the issue of religious liberties topping all others is one that has been chipped away over the past few decades.
As the First Amendment to the Constitution says:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Some argue that holding the belief in no God, or an irrelevant or disinterested god other than man himself, is in itself a religion, a belief system that competes with the Judeo-Christian belief system.
That "religion" is often referred to as secularism. The First Amendment says Congress should make no law to promote or prohibit a particular belief system. In that case, the State would be restricted from forcing Christians to implement secularists' or Muslim or Hindu beliefs.
Despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s legalization of same-sex marriage in 2015, the state’s highest civil court will reconsider a Houston case challenging the city’s benefits policy for married same-sex couples, the Star-Telegram reports. The court had previously declined to take up the case on an 8-1 vote, letting stand a lower court decision that upheld benefits for same-sex couples.
But Texas Republicans looking to narrow the scope of the landmark ruling legalizing same-sex marriage urged the Texas court to reconsider. Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in October filed an amicus brief with the court asking it to reconsider the case.
Texas' concept of religious freedom as demonstrated in allowing Christians to reject implementing same sex marriage is sure to be challenged, even again to the U.S. Supreme Court level.
It's time Christians evaluate their belief systems and be prepared to have them challenged.
Even Christians in Illinois.
If those Texas “clerks, judges and various other personnel” can’t perform their jobs, they need to find other jobs that don’t conflict with their religious beliefs. No one forced them to run for office or take a specific job. There are plenty of jobs that require nothing to do with “gay marriage” (aka marriage, no qualifier). Go find a job that suits your beliefs! Oh, yeah, most major companies have non-discrimination policies. Guess you’ll have to open your own business, Oh, yeah, public accommodation laws. Well, guess you’ll have to move to one of those backwards countries in which being gay is outlawed. May I help you pack?
Thanks Janne, you prove the point.
People like you don’t want those stupid, backward, redneck Bible Thumpers in America! Shut up or get out!!
And who, dear Janne, are the hard-working taxpayers that keep their heads down and pay for the community activists so they can avoid real jobs??
Be thankful for religious freedom in America, Janne. That freedom allows you to be a public heretic.
Now move over. We’re staying.
Suzzane… who cares about your ZOMBIE fake God. You are entitled to your christian fantasies (hater in the name of Jesus is all you are) but you not entitled to invoke those fantasies and hate on others…
freedom of religion means freedom from hypocrites like you who mind everybody’s business but your own. It does not give YOU permission to attack,judge or implement laws aimed at anyvbody who isn’t you… the freedom of religion clause does not give you carte blanche to violate federal laws. HYPOCRITE!!! if you burn in hell its because you never looked in the mirror. You get the hell you deserve…
Suzanne, Christians who do not attempt to force their religious beliefs on others are very welcome. But just as the federal government cannot prevent Christians from worshipping freely, Christians cannot be allowed to interfere with the rights of others. A balance must be struck. Don’t take a job that requires you to do tasks you object to. I would never work in an abortion clinic because my beliefs inform me that it is morally wrong.
Also, don’t forget that many Christians and Christians sects are supportive of marriage, whether the partners are of opposite or the same sex.
And neither can sodomites force Christians to sin by supporting their perversion and violation of natural law. Christians have a RIGHT to know homosexuality is a sin. Its called religious freedom.
No one is born a homosexual…
Zombie??? LOL.. that’s the best you’ve got! Hahahahahaha!
Just because all true Christians oppose homosexual behavior doesn’t make them haters, it is deceivers like you who seek to deny Christians their beliefs who are the haters and oppressers.
You probably think a parent that disiplines their child because of sinful behavior hates their child…
What federal laws are violated??? Federal laws don’t override the constitution. no really, there is so much you know that just ain’t so. All your noise is nothing but pathetic propaganda…
Homosexual behavior should be and will be outlawed in this country again…. just like it was before.
So should clerks and judges also be allowed to refuse government services to Jews? Interfaith marriages? Interracial marriages?
If you don’t want to provide services to all Americans equally, you don’t belong in a position of public trust.
True Christians need not apply huh, you haters would like that wouldn’t you.
“If you don’t want to provide services to all Americans equally, you don’t belong in a position of public trust.”
No true Christian would deny a man marriage to a woman, ALL Americans are treated equally, every man and woman who wants to marry each other gets treated equally.
Yes, you have the freedom to not enter into a homosexual relationship. But if you don’t want to serve homosexuals, don’t take a job that requires you to do so. Otherwise you are breaking the law and will have to accept the consequences.
Again, plenty of Christians and Christian sects support homosexuals.
Who are you to decide who is a true Christian? Do you think that YOU are God? THAT is a sin.
Naturally you lib “intellectuals” neglect to consider that marriage was actual marriage (man and woman) when most people in those roles took the jobs. Remember when you “honest” libs fought for civil unions and lied about wanting to push it to redefining marriage?
No one is asking you to enter a homosexual relationship. If a certain job requires you to violate your beliefs, don’t take it. Plenty of true Christians support homosexuals and marriage.
And plenty of “straights” commit sodomy
Spense! You are correct! All Americans are treated equally in marriage! Love wins!
Heh – uh, no.
Job requirements change. If you are unwilling to keep pace with your job, it’s time to find a different job, whether you cannot master a computer program or do not wish to serve the clientele.
I never claimed to be God… another untruth by you, I know you don’t understand this but to be a true Christian one cannot live in sin like homosexuals do. They must obey God’s word and live Biblically.
Those who rewrite the Bible to suit them are not true Christians
Apostates…
Wrong, THE US CONSTITUTION protects, specifically the Bill of Rights protects Chritians.
Our rights come from God, and God certainly did not grant homos special rights
1 Timothy 1:6-7: “Some people have deviated from these and turned to meaningless talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying, or the things about which they make assertions.” – Some things never change.
You can’t rewrite the Bible or ignore parts you may not like to suit you. To be a true Christian you must live Biblically and you must have faithful obedience to God’s word. If you believe only what you like in the Bible, and reject what you don’t like, it’s not the Bible you believe, but yourself.
2nd Thessalonians 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
The Bible says in the book of Judges that every man did that which was right in his own eyes. We’re not talking about people who chose to do wrong here. They chose to do right the Bible says; but they chose for themselves what was right. People who said, “I want to do right, but I will decide what’s right.”
Sounds familar….. The Bible describes liberals perfectly.
No one has to respect the same-sex perversion of marriage. We true Christians never will and anti-Christian homos can’t make us
Its coming so just get over it… every knows they were lied to by homosexuals and genetics does not cause anyone to be homosexual. No one is born homosexual… all behavior is a choice and a person’s genes NEVER forces behavior. All behavior is a choice unless mental illness is involved.
Allot of decent moral people are really fed up with liberal judgmentalism, liberal self-righteousness, liberal name-calling, liberal Christian hate, liberal intolerance, liberal bullying, liberal prejudices, and liberal discrimination. Liberals are showing us just how extreme and irrational they are and how corrupt their values are.
Homosexual behavior will be outlawed in this country again…. just like it was before.
So if I’m a Baptist and my workplace decides to start selling alcohol, I can refuse to cooperate and keep my job? I don’t think so.
“No true Christian would deny a man marriage to a woman…”
Seriously Spense, you need to read up on the “no true Scotsman” fallacy.
Are you sure you don’t mean “infidel”?
Spense and Sam, you can’t persuade or convert crackpots.
Oh really and Janne have provided us with so many examples of twisted beliefs that it’s worthless to use rational reasoning with them.
Many “Christians” cannot even keep the Ten Commandments. So many take the name of God in vain, And how many keep Sabbath holy? Christians, do you keep your attention on God on Sabbath? (Or do you do yard chores and run errands?). Honor thy mother and father – by sticking them in nursing homes.
Don’t like the Old Testament? Well, Christ was pretty vehement on the subject of divorce. An awful lot of Christians are divorced. In fact, I’d say that Christians need to monitor themselves and pay attention to what each other is doing in a lot of areas before they go out and attempt to judge others.
Haven’t seen many gouged out eyes due to lust. Nor cut off hands.
Christians make oaths all the time. Every time they say the Pledge of Alligience.
Christian women are not to use ornaments, style their hair, or wear fancy dresses. A lot of female Christians are in trouble with God.
Take the log out of your eye before you worry about the speck in another’s.
Ideally, any private employer could terminate any employee at any time, with or without reason. That is not a reality in the regulation swamp you adore as opposed to a market-based system. My complaint isn’t with people losing their jobs, but with you sick, twisted perverts and your lust to make all perversion accepted and supported.
This
But that’s not what you believe at all, Janne. Why the lies? You say “don’t take a job that requires you to do so”, then you force owners of businesses who do just that to worship at your altar of homosexuality. Don’t lie, it’s unbecoming.
Sam Pierce is correct. Janne doesn’t actually believe that people should find a different job. What she means is “submit”. There are plenty of people who went and became business owners and reserved the right to refuse service and the Janne-type holy warriors fined them and put them out of business.
All hogwash…. all things taken out of context. You should trying actually reading the Bible somtime, because you don’t know what you are talking about.
No, I’m meant apostate… The Bible clearly prophesies that the Church of the end times will be characterized by apostasy. Paul said that the Antichrist will not be revealed until then.
True Christians don’t support homosexual behavior, they love the sinner but hate the sin.
They are here to gaslight… they don’t believe what they say, but they practice If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. ~ Joseph Goebbels Hitlers Propaganda Minister
Gaslighting is a form of mental and psychological abuse in which false information is presented by abusers with the intent of making victims doubt their own memory, perception, and beliefs.
No, but I do remember when people acknowledged the political reality and what was achievable at the time, but kept fighting for full equality.
Do you mean….like the big news media does every day?