Americans United: Iowa Supreme Court Ruling On Marriage UpholdsReligious Liberty, Says Americans United

[Brad Pardee]

Americans United is quite thoroughly wrong, as is their support for the Iowa 
Supreme Court's ruling.

Rev. Lynn says, "Civil law cannot be based on any group's theology," but 
people who do not support same sex marriage are not any more guided by their 
theology than the evangelicals emerging from the 2nd Great Awakening to 
oppose slavery.  Was advocating an end to slavery advocating impermissible 
because it was civil law "based on any group's theology"?  Of course not.  A 
person's religious beliefs can't be the What of civil law, but it can most 
certainly be the Why.

Additionally, the notion that this ruling that this protects religious 
liberty is, at best, the naive clinging to a myth.  Rev. Lynn claims that 
houses of worship will not be required to perform same-sex ceremonies, but 
that's not what the court says.  The article itself quotes the ruling as 
saying, "A religious denomination can still define marriage as a union 
between a man and a woman, and a marriage ceremony performed by a minister, 
priest, rabbi, or other person ordained or designated as a leader of the 
person's religious faith does not lose its meaning as a sacrament or other 
religious institution."  How long will it be before says, "This church 
doesn't have to define our relationship as a marriage but they can't 
discriminate by refusing to perform the ceremony"?  The idea that a person 
would never be forced to act contrary to their religious beliefs would come 
as a great shock to Elaine Huguenin.

Brad Pardee

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joel Sogol" <jlsatty at wwisp.com>
To: "Religionlaw" <religionlaw at lists.ucla.edu>; "'Brian Sogol'" 
<bsogol at gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, April 03, 2009 6:17 PM
Subject: Americans United: Iowa Supreme Court Ruling On Marriage 
UpholdsReligious Liberty, Says Americans United


> http://www.au.org/site/News2?abbr=pr&page=NewsArticle&id=10375