Georgia Governor: “Opposing Same Sex Marriage
unChristian”
Georgia’s Republican governor has come out
strongly against proposed legislation protecting clergy and others from being
forced to participate in or condone so-called same sex marriage.
Citing the Bible and the fact he was a
Southern Baptist who’s taken religion courses, Nathan Deal said opposition to
homosexual “marriage” doesn’t square with Christ’s teaching and that
Republicans advocating for the Georgia religious liberty bill should step back
and “recognize that the world is changing around us.”
“What the New Testament teaches us is that
Jesus reached out to those who were considered the outcasts, the ones that did
not conform to the religious societies’ view of the world,” Deal said. “We do
not have a belief in my way of looking at religion that says we have to
discriminate against anybody. If you were to apply those standards to the
teaching of Jesus, I don’t think they fit.”
Deal also stated he would reject any
measure that “allows discrimination in our state in order to protect people of
faith,” according to AJC.com.
He went on to cite the Bible passage where
Jesus reaches out to the woman at the well and then declared there is no threat
posed by governments treating same-sex couples as though they were married.
“What that says is, we have a belief in
forgiveness and that we do not have to discriminate unduly against anyone on
the basis of our own religious beliefs,” stated Deal. “We are not jeopardized,
in my opinion, by those who believe differently from us.”
“We are not, in my opinion, put in jeopardy
by virtue of those who might hold different beliefs or who may not even agree
with what our Supreme Court said the law of the land is on the issue of
same-sex marriage,” he went on. “I do not feel threatened by the fact that
people who might choose same-sex marriages pursue that route.”
The Georgia House unanimously passed HB
757, the Pastor
Protection Act, February 11, affording conscience
protection for clergy declining to perform “wedding” ceremonies for homosexual
couples.
The Georgia Senate approved the bill
February 19, after the Senate Rules Committee combined it with S.B. 284, the First Amendment Defense Act of Georgia, which broadened the
legislation to “prohibit discriminatory action against a person who believes,
speaks, or acts in accordance with a sincerely held religious belief or moral
conviction that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and
one woman or that sexual relations are properly reserved to such marriage.”
Some 400 corporations have joined forces to
oppose H.B. 757, a report from On Top Magazine said. Gathering under the “Georgia Prospers”
moniker, companies include Home Depot, Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, and UPS,
with some threatening to take their business elsewhere.
Immediately after its passage in the
Senate, Deal urged lawmakers to amend the proposed law, saying he and his top
aides are working with House Speaker David Ralston, who had criticized
the bill, and other legislative leaders to do so.
“We’re working with the leadership of the
General Assembly now as that bill is continuing to move through the process,”
Deal said. “So we’ll see.”
Deal’s lieutenant governor views the
religious freedom legislation differently from how the governor does. “It in no way interferes with our
world-class tourism or business communities whatsoever,” Casey Cagle told the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We are simply ensuring that no Georgian suffers
at the hand of our government for their view on marriage.”
Deal insisted he is still a supporter of
“traditional marriage,” but he said, “That does not mean that those who hold to
that view should feel like they are threatened by those who have a different
point of view.”
He continued by calling on Republicans
supporting the religious liberty legislation to accept that times are changing
in terms of acceptance of homosexual attempts at marriage.
“I hope that we can all just take a deep
breath, recognize that the world is changing around us, and recognize that it
is important that we protect fundamental religious beliefs,” Deal stated. “But
we don’t have to discriminate against other people in order to do that. And
that’s the compromise that I’m looking for.”
The Georgia Republican is not the first GOP
governor to step out of the way for denial of conscience protection by
pro-homosexual groups and activists.
After signing the Indiana Religious Freedom
Act into law last March, Governor Mike Pence bowed to pressure from pro-homosexual corporations, lawmakers, celebrities, and
media and withdrew
his support for the law.
Florida Governor Rick Scott signed a bill
last June removing the state’s decades-old ban on adoption placement of
children in homosexual homes, citing
religious freedom in stating that religious liberty was not
mutually exclusive from discrimination. The removal of the ban left Christian
adoption agencies without protection should they uphold their sincerely held
moral belief that placing a child into a same-sex couple’s custody is not in
the best interest of the child.
Read more at http://www.trunews.com/same-sex-marriage-unchristian/#1yVOCTQmHdihJ4IX.99
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