Reply #19: No religious organization can ever be forced to marry anybody. [View All]

[yardwork]

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees religious organizations the right to exist and express their religious views without interference from the government. That is the entire point of "separation of church and state." The government can't tell a church who to marry, who to allow in their congregation, who to baptize, etc.

Legal marriage is completely different from the religious ceremonies that may accompany marriage for some couples. Those religious ceremonies have no bearing on whether or not the marriage is legal in the eyes of the government.

As a gay person, I can go out tomorrow and "get married" in any number of churches but that marriage will not be viewed as legal by the state in which I live or my country. I would get zero legal benefits.

When I was married to a man many years ago, we walked down to the courthouse in the county in which we chose to be married. We were given a legal document - a marriage license. Our choice of where we took that legal document was entirely up to us. As it happened, we took it to my hometown church and were married by a minister, endowed by the state in which we married with the authority to perform a legal marriage. He signed our marriage license and we were married in both the eyes of the state and the Episcopal Church. In the eyes of the state, I am now divorced. The Episcopal Church takes a very dim view of my divorce, but this religious organization's views have no bearing on the legal status of my marriage and divorce. And vice-versa. The government that recognizes my divorce has no right to tell the Episcopal Church how to feel.

The struggle for marriage equality is a struggle for the right to marry in the eyes of the government. Period. No church anywhere in the U.S. can ever be forced to marry anybody.

I hope that clears that up.