Quote:
Originally Posted by djplong
Would the Roman Catholic Church have First Ammendment rights if they were still doing Inquisitions? Or if the Mormons still believed people of African descent were 2nd class citizens (old tenet was that blacks could get into heaven as the 'servants' of whites) ...or if an Islamic committed an honor killing? (Oh, wait, they still do that in the Middle East)
The reason I bring that up is - where do you draw the line between the First Ammendment and stating that a given practice is illegal REGARDLESS of religion?
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You draw the line in the place where your rights are impinged by the practice of another. There are no rights being trampled here.
You have your rights, and the Church has theirs. You have no Constitutional Right to the Church's money.
This isn't that difficult DJ.
Take same sex marriage. Suppose the highest court decides that same sex marriage is a right. You wouldn't be able to force the Church to perform this ceremony, or to recognize it's validity. The Church wouldn't have any power to prevent civil ceremonies or any other denomination's decision to perform one.