By Ken Camp and Jeff Brumley / Baptist News Global
This is an abbreviated version of the story. For the full story, click here.
Ministers from across the Lone Star state recently urged legislators to pass legislation protecting clergy from lawsuits if they refuse to conduct same-sex weddings.
Welcome to the dance, Texas.
Experts say the number and variety of bills being filed and debated in the nation’s statehouses are coming at a dizzying rate. Ditto for lawsuits and threats of lawsuits when marriage equality butts up against religious liberty — or even when it’s just perceived to do so.
“Questions and concerns pertaining to same-sex marriage have changed the public debates about religious liberty because there have been so many public controversies,” said Hollyn Hollman, general counsel at the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.
Hollman noted that the Texas Senate bill, and legislation like it in other states, is different from Religious Freedom Restoration Acts, which have been adopted by several states. Some of those, like Indiana’s highly controversial RFRA, don’t necessarily even mention gay marriage.
Such measures and the controversies surrounding them bring more attention and confusion to religious liberty law, Hollman said.
“It is complex and there are going to be hard issues we are going to have to figure out based on marriage rights and conflicts with other kinds of law,” she said.
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