Earlier this month, CNN held a town hall event for the Democratic 2020 hopefuls which highlighted LGBT issues. During the event, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke expressed his belief that churches should lose their tax-exempt status should they refuse to perform homosexual “marriages.” In his response at the town hall, O’Rourke said, ”there can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone … that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us.”
In an MSNBC interview last weekend, O’Rourke appeared to walk back this highly controversial and brazenly unconstitutional position while also defending it at the same time.
When asked if he still believes if churches should lose their tax-exempt status he responded, “The answer to the direct question that you just asked is no,” then went on to say, “I see tremendous value in what religious institutions do in this country, not just for congregants and parishioners, but what they do in our communities…of course they should be able to do that work. And of course, anyone of us should be able to worship as we please, believe what we like.”
He cited a church in Texas that apparently harbors illegal aliens as something that churches do for the community. Of all the good things churches do within their communities, this is what O’Rourke decided to cite as an example. Of course, he’d pick the left’s favorite bleeding-heart example of doing good. But, we digress.
O’Rourke continued saying, “But the moment that any nonprofit organization in this country offers services in the public sphere — higher education is a great example, or a health care clinic or hospital — then they must follow the laws of this country, including the law that prohibits discrimination based on any difference of race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation, which is the question that I was asked at that CNN town hall,” he continued. “That is a longstanding value, and certainly since 1964 and the Civil Rights Act a longstanding law in this country.”
What O’Rourke is taking for granted is that the Civil Rights Act does, in fact, prohibit discrimination against people on the basis of sexual orientation, an issue so controversial that it will soon be before the Supreme Court.
It is also quite worthy to note that O’Rourke failed to include religion when citing the Civil Rights Act, where the faithful are also protected from discrimination. Forcing churches to perform same-sex “marriage” ceremonies would be a complete infringement of the separation of church and state not to mention the fact that denying the church its tax-exempt status because same-sex marriage goes against their religious precepts is completely discriminatory.
As Americans, our rights to believe as we like and to allow our beliefs to affect the way in which we live is protected by the Constitution Nobody should be forced to participate in events they morally or religiously do not agree with. If the government begins to step in and force churches, or other business owners, to either perform gay marriages or lose tax benefits would be a disturbing deviation from First Amendment protections.
O’Rourke walked back his original stance but then proceeded to essentially defend it. He is a double-minded man and the Bible says a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.
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