"First Amendment Defence Act"

[RevBates]

I have vary sad news, this election year could be one of the worst if one of the Republicans win. Our First Amendment is in trouble after conservatives get their hands on it. No matter where you stand on the issue it will affect everyone in the religies community including the gay community. I'm talking about the "First Amendment Defense Act" which will favor the Conservative republicans and the anti-gay churches. We can see it happening in Georgia where their "First Amendment Defense Act" bill has passed both in the state senate and in their house. That state will lose close to 500 companies with one about to leave the state if it goes into law, and 300 clergy in the state has spoke against the bill. Almost all the major republican presidential candidates have pledge to sign the national bill which would put all states in the same boat.

No matter where you stand we all need to stand together from Pastors to priest to reverends within the ULS church and oppose this bill.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/2802/text

Edited March 15, 2016 by RevBates

[Pastor Craig]

Sounds similar to Florida's new law.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott has finally approved the "Pastor Protection Act", which aims to protect clergy members if they refuse to perform same-sex marriages.

http://www.christiantimes.com/article/pastor-protection-act-gets-florida-gov-rick-scotts-approval/53778.htm

 

Sounds like a good thing to me. the LGBT community has sued pretty much anyone that hasn't seen things their way. It is just a matter of time before they  start suing clergy for refusing to perform a ceremony for them.

 

 

 

[RevBates]

Well, the first amendment already protects Christians and the church but the Government needs to follow the First Amendment. And a gay couple shouldn't force a pastor to marry them when there are churches that will marry them.

Madison was one of the first thinkers in colonial America to understand why church and state must be separated. His advocacy for this concept grew out of his own personal experiences in Virginia, where Anglicanism was the officially established creed and any attempt to spread another religion in public could lead to a jail term.

Early in 1774, Madison learned that several Baptist preachers were behind bars in a nearby county for public preaching. On Jan. 24, an enraged Madison wrote to his friend William Bradford in Philadelphia about the situation. "That diabolical Hell conceived principle of persecution rages among some and to their eternal Infamy the Clergy can furnish their quota of Imps for such business," Madison wrote. "This vexes me the most of any thing whatever. There are at this time in the adjacent County not less than 5 or 6 well meaning men in close Gaol [jail] for publishing their religious Sentiments which in the main are very orthodox. I have neither the patience to hear talk or think any thing relative to this matter, for I have squabbled and scolded abused and ridiculed so long about it, to so little purpose that I am without common patience. So I leave you to pity me and pray for Liberty of Conscience to revive among us."

Madison soon had the opportunity to translate his anger into action. As a member of the Revolutionary Convention in Virginia in 1776, Madison sought to disestablish the Church of England in that state and secure passage of an amendment guaranteeing religious liberty to all. The attempt at disestablishment failed, but Madison's ideas on religious freedom were included in an "Article on Religion" that was adopted by the Convention. The statement held that religion can be "directed only by reason and conviction, not force or violence" and guaranteed to all "the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience."

Here Madison was responsible for a great leap forward in thinking. At the Revolutionary Convention, delegate George Mason had proposed an amendment guaranteeing "toleration" of all faiths. To Madison, this did not go far enough. He sought to expand religious liberty rights beyond mere toleration and argued for the "free exercise" of religion a concept that would later resurface in the First Amendment.

Madison's proposal was turned over to an 11-member committee, of which he was a member, for consideration. Several proposed amendments were put forth. Some members favored allowing the federal government to endorse religion in a general way as long as it did not engage in preferential treatment of any sect. These proposals were rejected as too weak.

The committee eventually settled on language reading, "Congress shall make no law establishing articles of faith or a mode of worship, or prohibiting the free exercise of religion."

The House of Representatives refused to accept this version, so a joint Senate-House committee, which included Madison, was charged with the task of forging a compromise. The records of their debate is sketchy, but it was this committee that eventually emerged with the language we know today: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Madison originally wanted to expand the First Amendment to apply to the states as well as the federal government. In fact, he saw this as the amendment's most important feature. His proposal cleared the House but was voted down in the Senate, and the amendment passed as a prohibition on the federal government only.

But again, the debate showed that Madison was thinking ahead of the curve. Eighty-one years after his proposal, Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment, which was designed to do what Madison argued for in 1787 apply the Bill of Rights to the states. - https://www.au.org/church-state/march-2001-church-state/featured/james-madison-and-church-state-separation

I can go on but people can read more about it from the website.

As you can see Madison wanted to include the states in the first amendment, and when I hear people state the the first amendment was only for the fed government I want to tell them to re-look at history. The first amendment alone protects churches and Christians and it does apply to the states.

[Key]

Very informative. Thank you for the background and history lesson, Rev Bates.

Often folks are ignorant of the past when forging toward a goal of limitations. What is right for the conscience of one is not right for all, I am sure Madison would say.

[RevBates]

1 hour ago, Key said:

Very informative. Thank you for the background and history lesson, Rev Bates.

Often folks are ignorant of the past when forging toward a goal of limitations. What is right for the conscience of one is not right for all, I am sure Madison would say.

1 hour ago, Key said:

Very informative. Thank you for the background and history lesson, Rev Bates.

Often folks are ignorant of the past when forging toward a goal of limitations. What is right for the conscience of one is not right for all, I am sure Madison would say.

Thanks

 

[emalpaiz]

Every minister-priest should have the right to perform or not perform a wedding.  It should not e imposed on the minister-priest by the government.  I strongly believe that minister-priests are here to help everyone with their spiritual life.  Then again minister-priests also have rights and freedom.

Hermano Luis

[RevBates]

Update: The Governor of Georgia  vetoed the "First Amendment Defense Act" stating he can't sign a bill with all the anti-discrimination language in it. But, he did say he supported the "Pastor Protection Act" the was inserted into the other bill. Now I do support any "Pastor Protection Acts" Bills to protect pastors who feel they can't go against their belief.

Edited March 29, 2016 by RevBates

[Pastor Craig]

Mississippi passed "Religious Freedom Law http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/05/473107959/mississippi-governor-signs-religious-freedom-bill-into-law".

 

[emalpaiz]

I am a ULC minister.  My spiritual convictions are clear.  I believe that two persons who love each other should have the right to get married.  I do not care what their sex might be.  So those laws would protect me when I celebrate the wedding.  Those laws sound like a big deal, but at the end they are nothing.  I believe in love.  God is the God of all.

Hermano Luis

[murphzlaw1]

This is why you're a Mentor, Luis..