The Mormon Church has begun a campaign in California to pass Proposition 8 this November to outlaw gay marriage. One of its main talking points is that churches that refuse to recognize and/or perform gay marriages will lose their tax-exempt status. My initial reaction upon hearing this was that it could not possibly be true. (The Catholic Church won’t hire women as priests, and it’s still tax exempt. Also, many churches didn’t recognize/perform divorces for quite a while, and they’re still around.) Somehow it seems that the separation of church and state keeps the government from meddling in church’s internal affairs the way it might elsewhere. But then again, I’m no legal expert; maybe there’s something weird about CA law?
Google sent me to conservative/pro-family advocacy sites and blogs, so I emailed the question to some very smart friends with law degrees who have focused at various points on non-profit law and also have an interest in gay marriage (so would know the law well enough to know the consequences of its passage). Both replied with something along the lines of: “That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard; please stop that terrible rumor from spreading!”
They’ve promised to dig up some solid sources for me, so I’ll update this later. But the bottom line is: Please do not believe the ads the Mormon Church is airing in California. They are untrue and obviously designed to scare voters who would otherwise have no problem extending the right to marriage to committed gay couples. The campaign is wrongheaded at best, downright sleazy at worst.
Vote no on Proposition 8 in November.
Update: Summaries of my friends’ legal insights are here.
2 Comments
October 1, 2008 at 1:41 pm
It’s not just the mormons. Lots of church leaders say ridiculous things about the effects of gay marriage. They tend to confuse problems they have had in conducting discriminatory actions (which apply now and will apply in the future in most states, irrespective of what happens to Prop.
with limits on religious freedom. Typically they’ll say that kids in school will not be taught that homosexuality is wrong (this is already the case in California law) or that people with religious hang-ups about homosexuality will not be permitted to refuse services on religious grounds (well that’s discrimination and there are already laws against it).
October 7, 2008 at 5:38 pm
[...] on Prop 8 & religious freedom Jump to Comments I promised an update from my lawyer friends about why Proposition 8 won’t threaten churches’ tax-exempt [...]