Idaho pastors Donald Knapp, Evelyn Knapp will go to jail, be fined for not performing gay marriage
Two ordained Christian pastors in Idaho have filed a federal lawsuit and a motion for temporarily restraining Coeur d’Alene city officials from forcing them to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies or face prosecution for violating “non-discrimination” laws.
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Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed the lawsuit and the motion on behalf of Donald Knapp and his wife, Evelyn, who run Hitching Post Wedding Chapel and have been required by city officials to perform gay ceremonies or face months in jail and/or thousands of dollars in fines.
The city says its non-discrimination ordinance requires them to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies because the courts have overridden Idaho’s voter-approved constitutional amendment that affirmed marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
“The government should not force ordained ministers to act contrary to their faith under threat of jail time and criminal fines,” ADF Senior Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco said in a statement.
“Many have denied that pastors would ever be forced to perform ceremonies that are completely at odds with their faith, but that’s what is happening here — and it’s happened this quickly,” Tedesco added. “The city is on seriously flawed legal ground, and our lawsuit intends to ensure that this couple’s freedom to adhere to their own faith as pastors is protected just as the First Amendment intended.”
The city is “unconstitutionally coercing” the Knapps to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies “in violation of their religious beliefs, their ordination vows, and their consciences,” the lawsuit states.
The couple, both in their 60s, can either violate their religious convictions and ministerial vows by performing gay wedding ceremonies or follow their religious convictions and vows by declining to perform such ceremonies and face up to 180 days in jail and up to $1,000 in fines, it adds.
“Worse, each day the Knapps decline to perform a requested same-sex wedding ceremony, they commit a separate and distinct misdemeanor, subject to the same penalties. Thus, if the Knapps decline a same-sex wedding ceremony for just one week, they risk going to jail for over three years and being fined $7,000,” the lawsuit explains.
“The government exists to protect and respect our freedoms, not attack them,” Tedesco underlined. “The city cannot erase these fundamental freedoms and replace them with government coercion and intolerance.”
time to lock and load!
What happened to the division of government and religion or is it just used for the government’ s convenient?
We’re not supposed to force our beliefs on others but the government has the right to tell us what we can believe and practice.
[…] The American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho announced Thursday that it will not wage a legal challenge against Hitching Post Wedding Chapel, run by Donald and Evelyn Knapp, which it had said was in violation of a local non-discrimination ordinance for theirrefusal to marry same-sex couples. […]
What happened to separation of church and state? Why would anyone want to get married where they know you aren’t welcome? I am going to assume the gay couple are a couple of drama queens and are just looking for headlines. Go look somewhere else dummies, there are churches in Idaho that will marry you and not cause all this drama, but I think that is what you are looking for.