Don and Evelyn Knapp are two ordained ministers who own The Hitching Post Lakeside Chapel in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. The Hitching Post is registered as a “religious corporation” limited to “performing one-man-one-woman marriages as defined by the Holy Bible.”
Last Friday, October 17th, the Knapps got a call asking them to perform a same-sex wedding at their chapel. Because they are Christians, they politely declined to perform the ceremony. The Justice of the Peace resides right across the street.
In May of this year, the Ninth Circuit issued an order allowing same-sex marriages in Idaho, effective October 15th. Because their chapel is a for-profit business, and not a church, the city claims the couple is obligated to obey the non-discrimination ordinance passed in 2013, which forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation.
The Knapps, an elderly couple, are now under threat of thousands of dollars a day in fines for every day they refuse to perform same-sex weddings, and are subject to possible jail time.
In June of this year, Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado, was approached by a gay couple who wanted him to make a wedding cake to celebrate their same-sex ceremony. Because of his religious beliefs, Jack Phillips politely declined, not wanting to lend his artistry to something he does not support. He did, however, offer to make anything else they might like.
The offended couple was so upset that, rather than finding another bakery, they filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission alleging discrimination based on sexual-orientation.
In order to fully eliminate Jack’s religious beliefs from his business, Administrative Law Judge Robert Spencer ordered Jack to change his store policies, and required he and his staff undergo sensitivity training. Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act states that “artists must endorse all views.”
He is also required, for the next 2 years, to submit quarterly reports to the commission, to demonstrate that the re-education training has turned him into exactly what gay activists want; a self-loathing, Christian baker, who will robotically obey the dictates of the state, and live out his years creating wedding cakes for every whiney gay couple that demands one of him.
Even more galling, the judge agreed with the ACLU that a Muslim baker, because of his beliefs, would be allowed to refuse a gay couple a wedding cake.
In Stillwater, New York, Liberty Ridge Farm features attractions for families like a pumpkin patch, a cornstalk maze and a rustic barn for parties and weddings. The Gifford family’s residence sits atop the barn on the third floor, so the barn is part of their home.
In September, 2012, Cynthia Gifford got a call from a woman looking to hold her wedding ceremony at the farm. After learning the wedding would be for a same-sex couple, Cynthia explained that, because of their Christian beliefs, they could not accommodate the lesbian couple for the ceremony, but offered to host the reception.
Having cleverly recorded the conversation without the farm owner’s knowledge, the offended children…I mean, couple, went running to the ACLU, who referred them to the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Although the farm owners employed homosexuals and had hosted gay parties in the past, the judge fined the owners $13,000, and ordered them to perform same-sex weddings in their barn in the future. $3,000 of the fine was awarded to the lesbian couple for “mental anguish.”
Cynthia and Robert Gifford, and all their employees, were ordered to undergo re-education training classes, where they would be taught how the gay community wants them to view same-sex marriage.
In July, 2008, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a Christian photographer named Elaine Huguenin, refused to shoot a “commitment ceremony” for Vanessa Willock and her partner. The lesbian couple filed a complaint with the New Mexico Civil Rights Commission and were found guilty of “sexual orientation” discrimination.
The owners of Elane Photography were ordered to pay the gay couple’s legal fees of over $6,600. Joe and Elaine Huguenin appealed the decision, but to no avail. The New Mexico Supreme Court upheld the ruling of the lower court, and opined that the Christian couple “now are compelled by law to compromise the very religious beliefs that inspire their lives,” adding “it is the price of citizenship.”
The price of citizenship? Christian Americans are now required to give up their religious liberty as a price of American citizenship? I thought the price of citizenship was paid by the brave patriots of the Continental Army, who fought for our religious liberty in the Revolutionary War, and won our right to be free citizens of this great country. Who gave the justices of the New Mexico Supreme Court the power to decide there is a “price of citizenship” to pay, and who should pay it?
In all of these cases, Christians were denied their Constitutional right to exercise their religious beliefs, in order to accommodate the demands of a few, in a group that represents less than 3% of the population.
And why is that? Why is the gay community hell-bent on forcing Christians to embrace gay marriage? We are told it is because homosexuals just want the same rights as heterosexual couples. But is that the only reason? Maybe for some; but for the activist wing of the gay community, it’s part of their agenda to destroy traditional marriage.
Here is a quote from journalist and LGBT activist, Masha Gessen on the agenda of the gay marriage movement. “It’s a no-brainer that [homosexuals] should have the right to marry. But I also think, equally, that its a no-brainer that the institution of marriage should not exist. That causes my brain some trouble. Part of why it causes me trouble is, because fighting for gay marriage generally involves lying about what we’re going to do with marriage when we get there. Because we lie that the institution of marriage is going to change, and it should change, and again, I don’t think it should exist.”
The militant wing of the gay community has become the politically-correct arm of the new totalitarian thought-police, using state and local government to do their bidding. Their ultimate goal is to render the traditional family unit obsolete. Listen to how Masha Gessen brags about having 3 children with 5 gay parents.
Families made up of a mom, a dad, and a few kids have no place in the brave new world of the same-sex zeitgeist. The first thing to go must be traditional marriage between one man and one woman. The supposed battle for tolerance for gays has ultimately become a war on Christianity. A war the gay community will surely lose.
Photo Credit: David
