Saturday, January 14, 2012

Think Before You React

Read the article, think about what it means and comment.

The Examiner - NJ judge rules against church in civil union flap

My answer is short, be a church or be a business, don't be both.

2 comments:

Robbie said...

I like your short and sweet comment, Pimpernel.

If every event at the venue had been restricted to those sponsored by the church, my opinion would be that they should be allowed to continue to control the happenings there, ensuring they remain church-approved.

Not knowing the particular laws in that location, I still don't think the church has a leg to stand on for appeal of this complaint.

Do you think the church could now establish some new rules for the venue, for future users? Or will they necessarily remain subject to all manner of lessees including those who'd want to practice what they disagree with?

In other words, will they have the right to refuse service to anyone? I notice that we don't see those signs up around town anymore....

Pimpernel said...

Dearest Robbie,

If they had treated the property as for church use only then they would have been allowed to refuse. Churches and non-profits are treated as businesses when they conduct themselves as a business. In this case the church used the property to raise revenue for the church and even allowed non-religious weddings.

As for the question of future actions. They would have to limit weddings to church members. Ever since the 1960s and the civil rights movements business enterprises cannot discriminate based on certain reasons (race, age...) and over the past 15 years it has been modified to include sexuality.

Nice to see your two comments, hope you are well.