A wake-up call for religious freedom
Many Christians expressed outrage after Democratic Presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke said religious colleges, churches, and charities should lose their tax-exempt status if they oppose same-sex marriage. His remarks were viewed by many as a candid admission that Democrats would trample religious freedom in pursuit of gay rights. The mask had finally slipped.
But for anyone who has followed religious freedom over the last decade, Beto’s remarks are no surprise. As I detail in my new book--Free to Believe--the rapid advance of gay rights has already produced many religious freedom casualties.
Some casualties have come from lawsuits, when same-sex couples sue religious people who can’t affirm their marriage. Although Colorado baker Jack Philips won a high-profile Supreme Court case--on what progressives were quick to call “narrow” grounds--other religious people haven’t been so lucky. Religious photographers, florists, bakers, and wedding venues have already been forced to pay massive penalties, with some losing their livelihoods. Religious schools, too, have faced multiple lawsuits from gay and lesbian teachers who lost their jobs because they oppose the schools’ basic religious teachings.
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But lawsuits like these are only the tip of the iceberg. State and local bureaucrats increasingly label traditional religious beliefs as a form of “bigotry” that can be punished even before a lawsuit is ever filed. Religious adoption and foster-care ministries have been shut down for not affirming same-sex marriages. Religious student groups have been de-recognized by state universities for declining to affirm same-sex relationships. And, yes, a religious group in New Jersey lost its tax-exemption for an oceanside pavilion after it declined to host a same-sex union.
Unfortunately, one side of the political aisle increasingly views traditional religious beliefs about marriage as morally repugnant--much like racist beliefs that supported segregation. Beto’s remarks simply pursue that view to its logical conclusion: Just as the IRS stripped Bob Jones University of its tax-exempt status in 1970 due to its ban on interracial marriage, so also the IRS should strip religious colleges of their tax-exempt status today due to their bans on same-sex marriage.
But the conflict between gay rights and religious liberty doesn’t have to end in the suppression of traditional religious views. As the Supreme Court said in its 2015 same-sex marriage decision, religious opposition to same-sex marriage is a “decent and honorable” view that is entitled to legal protection. Just as same-sex couples have a right to live according to their views, religious traditionalists have a right to live according to theirs. The government doesn’t get to pick one view of marriage and crush everyone who dissents.
That is why federal courts recently rebuked Michigan’s Attorney General for trying to shut down a religious adoption agency and punished Iowa officials for discriminating against a religious student group.
Our country has a powerful history of protecting religious dissent. Human dignity demands no less. Beto’s remarks are a wake-up call for religious freedom.
Luke Goodrich is the author of Free to Believe: The Battle Over Religious Liberty in America and vice president and senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. The views here do not necessarily reflect the views of Becket or its clients.
