For several years now, experts in both law and religion have been warning of a coming clash between the same-sex "marriage" campaign and religious liberty. Some incidents have already illustrated this problem — such as Catholic Charities being forced out of the adoption business in Massachusetts. However, nothing has demonstrated this danger more clearly than the extreme reactions to the victory of California's marriage amendment, Proposition 8.
The protests against Proposition 8 have been vehement — even violent. When a woman in Palm Springs tried to counter some demonstrators, they knocked a large cross out of her hands and stomped on it. Vandalism began before the election, with the defacing or destruction of yard signs and attacks on cars and has continued after, with churches that backed the amendment being spray-painted. Radical homosexual activists disrupted the worship service at a Michigan church. One donor to the Proposition 8 campaign was forced out of his job, and businesses that backed the amendment are being boycotted.
A key target of these demonstrators has been the Mormon Church. The Mormon Church and many individual Mormons either endorsed Proposition 8 or contributed money to the campaign for its passage. As a result, Mormon churches in Los Angeles and around the country have been a special target for protests, vandalism and threats — such as the mailing of an envelope of white powder (reminiscent of the anthrax terror attacks) to one such church.
Less dramatic than these scattered incidents, but in some ways more threatening, has been one consistent theme of these protests — a call to "Tax the Mormon Church." Presumably the rationale for this is a belief that tax-exempt churches should not speak out with respect to election campaigns.
This reflects a misunderstanding even of current law, which forbids churches to endorse or work for political parties or candidates for public office but places no restrictions on their involvement in referendum campaigns. It also reflects a mistaken view that the tax-exempt status of churches is a gift of government, to be granted or taken away based on how well they conform to the dictates of political correctness. Many rightfully understand that because of the guarantee of religious liberty in the First Amendment, it would be unconstitutional for the government to tax churches under any circumstances.
Furthermore, the nation's churches should be free to speak out on any issues of conscience — including not only policy issues like same-sex "marriage," but even the outcome of elections. Where would the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement of the 1960s have been without churches as locations for organizing?
Threats to remove the tax exemption of churches that defend one-man one-woman marriage are one way that the campaign for same-sex "marriage" threatens religious liberty. But "religious liberty" is not limited to the institutional church. If same-sex "marriage" becomes widespread, religious schools and colleges could be forced to admit and employ homosexuals. Religious psychologists, social workers and marriage counselors could be stripped of their licenses for "discriminating" against homosexuals.
It should be noted that none of the organized demonstrations protesting Proposition 8 have targeted African-American churches, even though 70 percent of African-Americans supported Proposition 8. Perhaps these demonstrators think that the Mormons will be an easier target because other religious groups, such as evangelicals and Roman Catholics, sometimes view the Mormons as an unorthodox minority sect and might not defend them.
Those demonstrators are wrong. Regardless of differences in doctrine, all parts of the pro-family movement are grateful for the support Mormons have given to the protection of marriage, and we will defend their religious liberty as vigorously as our own.
Tony Perkins, a former Louisiana state representative, is president of Family Research Council in Washington, D.C.