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so if someone asks a liscensed minister (that is not necessarily a pastor of a church) to marry them..and gay marriage was legal...and the minister refused...are u saying he could not be sued and his license would still be intact??
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This is 100% what I am saying. The right of a religious organization to decide what people and actions it gives its blessing to is absolute -- it's part and parcel of the right to free exercise of religion. So for example, if you want to start up a KKK church and only marry white couples, that's fine and dandy in the eyes of the law, and you will still get your tax exemption and everything. The same is true right now in Massachusetts where gay marriage is legal -- the state recognizes gay peoples' right to CIVIL marriage, but there is no right to be married in a particular church. No pastor and no church will be in any danger whatsoever from choosing not to perform them, and it goes without saying that Catholic, Baptist, etc. churches do not. You don't even have to let gay people into your church building if you don't want to, much less marry them.
Ivy, former teaching assistant in Constitutional Law
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