Flash Farley
Senior Member
What equal rights. NO ONE has a right to work at a church. Do you get that?
Everyone has the equal rights to be considered for employment in public institutions. Even in private settings landlords are required to follow equal housing laws which means you can't deny gays housing according to Equal housing laws on the books. You are not supposed to any ways.
Why you consider church as public organization? It has an owner - a God!!!
Church is a public organization just as I, an individual, am a public organization.
I understand that you consider the church to be owned by God. I respect your beliefs. But in the real world, church is an organization made up of people as is a corporation or a non profit. So it has to abide by the same rules as other organizations do.
Granted churches are not corporation and profits are not the motive when operating the churches. I am willing to grant some concessions to churches because they also do community services.
But make no mistake: Churches are engaged in proselytization and religious conversions. Churches also adhere to different moral codes and are exempt from criticisms of such moral codes at the government level because they enjoy a special status.
I personally would not join a church nor work for it. I respect their religious freedom to study bible and believe in God. However, I think it's time to hold churches to higher standards of conduct.
So to answer your questions: Everyone is governed by human laws, just as any one person business is held to same standards as are most all other organizations, save some non profits.
Ok, but how it related to gay priests?
At first, Church is employeer, so priests are employee, and like other employees must satisfy employee requirements. If I hadn't driver license, I can't be a truck driver, instead of colour of my skin - where's discrimination? What's says bible: "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.". How anyone can be priests (a spiritual authority and Church's laws interpreter), if he violates one of church' laws by his existance? Who violates law, cannot be the interpreter of it!
And about gay marriage... If you want to have a homosexual contact - it's your right as human, to make behind the locked doors all you want, it's your privacy. If you are consider marriage as social act - let the society to decide this problem. If you want marriage as Church act - it's a prerogative of Church to decide, who can be in marriage by Church law!
Church is not obligated to hire gays (currently) and does not perform marriages. I respect their right not to perform gay marriages. Marriages by the church is not a fundamental right.
Employment rights are "universal" in the sense no employer is supposed to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation of any person. Somehow the churches think they are above this requirement because of their religious status. This needs to change.
Of course, I fully expect the Christian bigots to oppose hiring of gays in their churches. The churches think that being bigots is some kind of a "God given" privilege they are entitled to exercise.
I can understand if churches are opposed to abortion. I do not understand the idea of being homophbes, but hey, I don't understand why ISIS beheads other people either. Each organization has its own way of engaging in bigotry and violence.
They're many churches that hire homos. However, that's not the point. The point is to force the churches who believe their bible to violate their religious beliefs by hiring homos.