How will the Supreme Court's gay marriage ruling affect your communion?

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For those who haven’t read the Opinion of the Court and its dissents, read here: supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf

During deliberations, it was noted:
Justice Alito: Well, in the Bob Jones case, the Court held that a college was not entitled to tax*-exempt status if it opposed interracial marriage or interracial dating. So would the same apply to a university or a college if it opposed same*-sex marriage?

General Verrilli: You know, I don’t think I can answer that question without knowing more specifics, but it’s certainly going to be an issue. I don’t deny that. I don’t deny that, Justice Alito. It is, it is going to be an issue.​

If colleges and universities can (will) lose tax-exempt status for being opposed to same-sex marriage, then it follows that the same will eventually apply to parochial schools and, eventually, churches. How will this affect your communion? Will your churches be able to afford taxes and litigation?
 
Off hand I don’t think there will be any effect of the ruling on Baha’is … as we don’t recognize “same sex marriage” … there are a number of statutes in the US that while being “legal” in civil law are not permitted for Baha’is. We don’t operate any Baha’i schools as such nor do we require people who we hire for say certain services in an office to be married or not so I personally doubt there will be any effect.

As far as tax exempt status in the US… We don’t have large properties or institutions that would be effected with or without tax exemptions… The Wilmette House of Worship I suppose could be taxed and some offices perhaps but nothing in comparison with other religious bodies.
 
steido01 said:
For those who haven’t read the Opinion of the Court and its dissents, read here: supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf

During deliberations, it was noted:
Justice Alito: Well, in the Bob Jones case, the Court held that a college was not entitled to tax*-exempt status if it opposed interracial marriage or interracial dating. So would the same apply to a university or a college if it opposed same*-sex marriage?

General Verrilli: You know, I don’t think I can answer that question without knowing more specifics, but it’s certainly going to be an issue. I don’t deny that. I don’t deny that, Justice Alito. It is, it is going to be an issue.​

If colleges and universities can (will) lose tax-exempt status for being opposed to same-sex marriage, then it follows that the same will eventually apply to parochial schools and, eventually, churches. How will this affect your communion? Will your churches be able to afford taxes and litigation?
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I’m not sure how it will affect my particular sect of the anglican communion, but I imagine it will lose the tax exempt status, at some point (I think this will be the case for all faith communities soon) --this will severely hurt my parish financially. We aren’t large by any means and we only have a small amount of wealthy donors.

My parish is conservative and I do not see it changing its attitude towards marriage any time soon. I worry about the repercussions of the Supreme Court’s decision today. When will faith communities be forced to comply with the state? Freedom of conscious is being trampled like trash on a sidewalk.
 
Aslan10 said:
I’m not sure how it will affect my particular sect of the anglican communion, but I imagine it will lose the tax exempt status, at some point (I think this will be the case for all faith communities soon) --this will severely hurt my parish financially. We aren’t large by any means and we only have a small amount of wealthy donors.

My parish is conservative and I do not see it changing its attitude towards marriage any time soon. I worry about the repercussions of the Supreme Court’s decision today. When will faith communities be forced to comply with the state? Freedom of conscious is being trampled like trash on a sidewalk.
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It WILL happen, count on it. It may take a few years to sort out, but gay extremists will not “call it a day” with this SCOTUS ruling. We are in a very small, poor parish & I fear for the future of it. 😦
 
SMH_2015 said:
It WILL happen, count on it. It may take a few years to sort out, but gay extremists will not “call it a day” with this SCOTUS ruling. We are in a very small, poor parish & I fear for the future of it. 😦
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I find these words of Justice Alito, one of the dissenting Judges, very chilling indeed:

“Most Americans—understandably—will cheer or lament today’s decision because of their views on the issue of same-sex marriage. But all Americans, whatever their thinking on that issue, should worry about what the majority’s claim of power portends.”

These are also the final words of the document, I pray they are not prophetic.
 
this is what sitting on the side lines does. The judges words Are prophetic. So folks there are two approaches Christians can take. We start being more vocal about our views. Or we roll over and ignore it. The one thing we must never be is silent. One thing to remember though is Jesus told us the world persecute us as it did him. Take heart he has overcome the world.
 
Is that everyone’s chief fear now? That the government will try to force Christian institutions to preform or endorse gay marriage? I honestly be that this would be unconstitutional. This would violate freedom of speech for one thing. They would also have to redefine eligibility for the tax exemption status. This means charities would be attacked. I don’t see that happening as it is a lifeline for way too many people.

In the meantime, who cares if they go to the JP?

What I DO fear is the backlash. THAT could be ugly. SCOTUS should just have stayed out of it. Too late now. Now there will be fear, where there need not have been. People and government in particular never think about unintentional consequences.
 
I may be naive, but why are so many people concentrating on whether the law of the land will force or interfere with the Church? Have we never read the Scripture where Gamaliel says of the Church: “If it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them”?–Acts 5.38-39.

Where is our faith? Are we so quick to forget last week’s Gospel reading from Mass when the disciples were certain they were to perish in the face of a horrible storm, but the Lord was asleep despite it all? Believing that the storm was something they should be worrying about and Jesus wasn’t doing enough, the disciples exclaimed to our Lord: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

But they were not perishing. They were in no danger. It was just a storm, and there are always violent storms on the Sea of Galilee. What was different about this storm? Nothing. The disciples were just panicking, playing the coward.

It was not just the sea and wind that got rebuked then. Jesus asked his disciples after rousing himself and calming the situation: “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”–Mark 4.35-41.

Where is the great empire of Rome that made the worship of Christians punishable by death? Did the Church ever cease to exist because any enemy rose up against it? Where is your faith? What attack came to be effective against God? None.

And since when is a legal recognition of marriage between same-sex couples an attack on the Church? We need to be very careful as Catholics that we are standing for righteousness and justice. While agreeing with the Church on its teachings regarding sexuality and marriage, we must do so humbly. Did we not burn St. Joan of Arc as a heretic because of jumping to wrong conclusions? Did not the Church in Austria recently ask forgiveness for the part it played in the Holocaust? Have we not noticed Pope Francis’ apology for how we wrongly persecuted the Waldensians? While I am not saying that the Church’s current teaching on homosexuality is wrong, what about our attitudes or reactions to this? We need to think twice so that we as a Church never again finds itself on the wrong side of history and have to apologize for demonizing and persecution of a group due to being wrongly judgmental. No one is attacking the Church. They are just getting legal civil marriages.

So what if it looks like a storm and that the Lord is “sleeping”? No one is perishing. If we were, do you not have the faith that God would step in?
 
esieffe said:
Is that everyone’s chief fear now? **That the government will try to force Christian institutions to preform or endorse gay marriage? ** I honestly be that this would be unconstitutional. This would violate freedom of speech for one thing. They would also have to redefine eligibility for the tax exemption status. This means charities would be attacked. I don’t see that happening as it is a lifeline for way too many people.

In the meantime, who cares if they go to the JP?

What I DO fear is the backlash. THAT could be ugly. SCOTUS should just have stayed out of it. Too late now. Now there will be fear, where there need not have been. People and government in particular never think about unintentional consequences.
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I don’t think that’s the fear at all. Every step through the last few years - this decision, ACA, the federalizing of student loans, and a number of others - has been part of an ongoing organized attack on the Church (here I include all communions that maintain orthodox moral principles.

Folks, we ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Jon
 
JonNC said:
I don’t think that’s the fear at all. Every step through the last few years - this decision, ACA, the federalizing of student loans, and a number of others - has been part of an ongoing organized attack on the Church (here I include all communions that maintain orthodox moral principles.

Folks, we ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Jon
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The reason to consider homosexuality as something embedded in their nature ( which is something stupid because homosexuality is a matter of choice based on education) was to obtain this decision…
 
Aslan10 said:
I find these words of Justice Alito, one of the dissenting Judges, very chilling indeed:

“Most Americans—understandably—will cheer or lament today’s decision because of their views on the issue of same-sex marriage. But all Americans, whatever their thinking on that issue, should worry about what the majority’s claim of power portends.”

These are also the final words of the document, I pray they are not prophetic.
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I agree, Aslan10. I also pray these words are not prophetic. This is very scary.

I firmly believe that God Almighty meant for marriage to be between one man and one woman for procreation.
 
Be still and know that I am God.

Nothing will destroy christianity. Ever.
 
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