It sure is a way to whip up fear among people with traditional
beliefs. But fear may often be perfectly logical, and a sound stimulus to
political action. The gay rights movement has been trying hard to stigmatize
sexual orientation discrimination, and hostility to homosexuality, as legally
and morally tantamount to race discrimination. I’ve heard it again and again.
If the Supreme Court accepts the argument that governmental sexual orientation
discrimination is constitutionally tantamount to governmental race
discrimination, that equivalence will become much easier to argue in other
contexts – including when it comes to IRS policies.
If I were a conservative Christian (which I most certainly am
not), I would be very reasonably fearful, not just as to tax exemptions but as
to a wide range of other programs – fearful that within a generation or so, my
religious beliefs would be treated the same way as racist religious beliefs
are: my institutions will be legally and socially marginalized, I and people
who think like me would be cut out of jobs for visibly holding our beliefs, and
so on. Many on this list might think this result would be perfectly just. But
I can’t see why conservative Christians should be expected to take this with
equanimity, or ignore reasonable warnings that this is the way things may well
go.
Eugene
From: religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu
[mailto:religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Ira Lupu
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 7:40 PM
To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics
Subject: Re: Religious organizations, tax-exempt status and same-sex marriage
Whether or not the SG could or should have answered differently, we can think
about this with clear heads. I don't know what the "level of scrutiny" has to
do with this question of tax exemption. Unmarried students at religious
colleges have a right of sexual privacy against the state, but not against
their schools. If a religious college had a policy of expelling any student
who had sex outside of marriage, is it imaginable that the IRS would revoke the
school's tax exemption? The IRS has never even revoked the tax exemption of a
church that would not accept a inter-racial marriage.
The whole "Bob Jones" story look like a way to whip up fear among people with
traditional beliefs. Does it not tell you something that the IRS has not
exercised this sort of power in over 30 years?
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