Religion
Related: About this forumEpiscopal Bishops Rebuke Kansas Anti-Gay House Bill 2453 With Religious Righteousness
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/14/episcopal-bishops-kansas-house-bill-2453_n_4790890.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009Posted: 02/14/2014 4:38 pm EST Updated: 02/14/2014 10:59 pm EST
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback greets representatives before his State of the State speech to an annual joint session of the House and Senate at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan., Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2014. | ASSOCIATED PRESS
On Wednesday, Kansas' Republican-dominated House passed Bill 2453, which makes it legal for individuals, groups, and businesses to refuse services for same-sex couples if they believe it goes against their religious beliefs to do so.
Though the bill claims that it "protects the rights of religious people," some people of faith are against it, explaining that legalizing discrimination doesn't protect religious freedom at all.
Two bishops of the Episcopal Church, the Right Reverend Dean E. Wolfe and the Right Reverend Michael P. Milliken, urged the rejection of Bill 2453 in a joint statement sent to all members of the Kansas Senate:
House Bill 2453, which is currently before the Kansas Senate, proposes to legalize discrimination against gay and lesbian couples, attributing the excuse for such discrimination as religious freedom. In truth, this bill is not about religious freedom but is aimed at creating state-authorized bias and inequality.
Under this bill, government employees could refuse to offer services to their fellow citizens and taxpayers, while claiming religious motives. Business owners could refuse goods and services to people they perceive to be partnered gay or lesbians without repercussion. This proposed legislation is reminiscent of the worst laws that permitted discrimination against people on the basis of color, sex or nation of origin. The intent of this bill is an affront to the beliefs of all Kansans who support equal treatment under the law for every human being.
Kansas history is filled with examples of standing up for the expansion of rights in our abolitionist, free state roots; as the first state in the country to elect a woman to a political office; and as a place identified with contributing to the end of school desegregation. We have a high calling to provide equality and equal opportunity to everyone.
For Episcopalians, our faith is unequivocal. Our Baptismal Covenant asks, Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself? Will you strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being? Promising to strive for justice and peace among all people and to respect the dignity of every human being requires us to be adamantly opposed to legislation that does none of these things.
Our biblically based faith calls us to live out the command of Jesus Christ to love one another. You cannot love your fellow Kansans and deny them the rights that belong to everyone else.
We urge the rejection of this bill so that our great state might continue to stand for justice, dignity and equality.
In Christ,
The Right Reverend Dean E. Wolfe
Ninth Bishop
The Episcopal Diocese of Kansas
The Right Reverend Michael P. Milliken
Fifth Bishop
The Episcopal Diocese of Western Kansas
skepticscott
(13,029 posts)when people who bow and scrape at the altar of "tolerance" are given too much deference. Even the most "tolerant" folk here should be openly and unashamedly intolerant of this manifestation of religious "faith", instead of trying to accommodate and appease it, and bashing people who won't.
edhopper
(33,585 posts)this is about what they believe, not just the actions from those beliefs. If this bill fails, they will continue to look for a way to discriminate and will eventually find some success. It is their beliefs that must be attacked not just their actions.
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)cbayer
(146,218 posts)hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)Brownback.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)As to excommunication, is this an excommunicable offense?
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)excommunicated.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)I'm not sure that excommunication makes sense if it is only based on politics.
There are many who would argue that any legislator who voted for a woman's right to choose should be excommunicated.
I couldn't support that.
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)The fact is that churches do this already and 7 think this kind of law shows that this man does not have a sense of what a Christian should be.
I would also be in favor of just threatening him with it to try to change his mind. But he won't change his mind.
okasha
(11,573 posts)for draconian anti-gay laws in Africa, it might rise to the level of an excommunicable offense. We'l have to wait and see whether the local Catholic Bishops follow the Episcopalians' lead.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)okasha
(11,573 posts)Brownback's participation in te C Street "Family" alone would have constituted heresy. Strictly speaking,it probably still does.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)That certainly seems like it would be heresy.
locks
(2,012 posts)to see what the C Street Family and evangelicals have wrought.