Steve Quayle #fundie stevequayle.com
“Pastor, we are here to request that you marry us in your church. When can we schedule the ceremony?”
“But, first gentlemen (or, alternatively, ladies), I must say that I don’t think we have ever met and I don’t recall seeing you at our Sunday services.”
“No, we don’t belong to your church, but we are demanding that you perform our marriage, just as you do for straight couples. Do you have a problem with that?”
“Well, yes, in fact I do have a problem with marrying you, with all due respect. Our church is based upon and ruled by The Bible. God created marriage between a man and a woman. He decided the issue of marriage 6,000 years ago. We’ll not be contradicting what God has said. We—.”
“Stop right there, Pastor. In case you haven’t noticed, the supreme law of the land now is that the states must issue marriage permits to same sex partners. So, therefore—.”
“Let me stop you, sirs. We are not the state. We are a private church whose head is Jesus Christ. We will not bow to any order that we violate God’s word in how we operate our church.”
“Are you living in the dark ages, Pastor? Didn’t you follow the test cases over the last two years where florists and caterers who refused to do business with same sex couples were fined and even had their property seized? You didn’t speak up and organize then, did you? Your church uses the public streets and utilities. Your church gets special tax treatment by the state. Your—.”
“Taxes? What do taxes have to do with—.”
“You don’t pay property taxes. Your congregation gets to deduct their contributions to you. You have become creatures of the state. You can’t discriminate against us any more than you can discriminate against people based on their race.”
“But, uh, we just won’t do it. We won’t marry you in this church. That’s it. Flat. End of discussion. This meeting is over. I’ll show you the door.”
“Fine, sir, fine. We’ll leave, but you will soon learn how this country has changed. The next people who will contact you will be agents of the Department of Justice. Churches which refuse to comply with the law will soon find that either the church will obey the law or the pastor will be jailed, and probably the board of elders. If you still refuse to obey the law, the church will be closed by court order. We can’t allow homophobia to exist in this community. You’ll hear from the federal government, soon. Very soon.”