A federal appeals court has ruled the
State of Mississippi can enact a religious freedom law that protects people of
faith in the Magnolia State.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals
announced (June 22) that it was overturning a lower-court decision (a year earlier)
that stopped the Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government
Discrimination Act. HB 1523 was signed
into law April 2016 by Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant (Republican), but was
challenged in the courts by homosexual activists. [get the background by reading my blog
posting of April 8, 1916 – “Mississippi’s Passage of Religious Freedom Bill”]
The ruling of a few weeks ago found
that those activists lacked legal standing because the new law had not harmed
them. “The court determined,” says
attorney Kevin Theriot of Alliance Defending Freedom, “that the plaintiffs in this
situation weren’t even harmed enough to be able even to get into court, much
less to win on the merits of the case.”
Both defenders and critics of the
Government Discrimination Act agreed that it creates new legal rights for
wedding-related services … such as bakeries and floral shops that have been
sued by homosexuals under the guise of anti-discrimination ordinances or state
laws.
The U.S. Supreme Court, meanwhile,
announced (June 26) that it will hear the case of a Colorado baker – Jack
Phillips – who refused to create a wedding bake for a same-sex couple who later
was sued for discrimination. Phillips
has said he sells bakery products to homosexuals at his Masterpiece Cake Shop
in Denver, but refuses to use his artistic talents for a same-sex wedding ceremony. “It was the event I’m being forced to
celebrate,” he said. “I also don’t make
cakes for bachelor parties. I don’t make
Halloween cakes or anything with witchcraft or demons.”
Most of the lawsuits have favored the
homosexual plaintiffs in the appeals process, making this Mississippi ruling a
rare exception – and making the state an enemy of homosexual activists and
their leftwing allies.
“This law is discriminatory,” declared
an attorney for the left-wing Mississippi Center for Justice, “and we will do
everything we can to prevent it from causing any more harm.”
The Mississippi law also protects
county clerks who refuse to sign same-sex marriage licenses; allows religious
organizations to discriminate against homosexuals in job-hiring; and protects
religious-based adoption agencies who refuse to place children in a same-sex
household, The New York Times unhappily
reported the other week.
“We applaud this decision,” says
William Perkins, editor of The Baptist
Record newspaper, “because it does speak to the biblical definition of
marriage and the fact that Baptists, as well as other Christians, should not be
forced to practice any other way except having marriage between a man and a
woman.”
“This is what this entire law said
from the very beginning,” Gov. Bryant told American
Family Radio last week. “That a
local or political subdivision could not say we’re going to punish you if you
don’t follow the rules that we establish regarding your own business and
ignoring your deeply held religious beliefs.”
The plaintiffs in the case can request
a hearing before the entire 5th Circuit or, like the Jack Phillips case, appeal
to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Rev.
Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain
(Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor,
Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
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