Gay marriage ban passes in NC

[Armistead]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

While it is obvious that I agree with you almost completely on this subject, this particular subject does bring up the question of religious freedom. Where do you draw the line between the right to marry and the right of a group of believers to have their worship remain private, even in a group setting? Yes, I support the right of gays to marry, but I also support the right of individual churches to decree whom they will and will not perform the ceremonies for.

That said, I believe it is not the government's place to determine this one way or the other. It is the government's place to secure equal rights for all.

I totally agree, you can't force any private or religious group to marry. Many Pastors refuse to marry people for numerous reasons, they should have that right, but they're many religions that will marry gays, it's not a matter of forcing denominations to marry gays, it's the right to a religious marriage in a church that will. I don't see this as an issue that even concerns lawmakers.

Much is the same with free speech. They're are liberals that would love to shut down what they deem is hate speech by pastors in their own church. This could be a legal test in the future as we now deem certain speech as hate and criminal. The issue I see if a church opens it's door to the public that anyone can enter, a gay walks in, pastor makes a gay killing comment.......criminal hate speech or religious rights, on the street you can be charged? If this ever happens you'll have people filling out mass legal agreements before they can walk in and churches will start accepting only members. With many pastors making radical statements towards gays, this could be an issue in the future. What happens when one of their members decides he needs to kill a gay because the pastor said all gays should die?

We know religions have numerous legal civil protections to protect them, the result is the many fake TV pastors making millions off trickery, no taxes, free speech, even if hate, etc....the church demands all these civil rights, yet would refuse civil rights to others based on their codes of morality.