Thu Mar 9, 2023 – 5:12 pm EST
NASHVILLE (LifeSiteNews) – The Tennessee House of Representatives voted 74-22 Monday to pass legislation that would guarantee courthouse staffers and county clerks the right not to issue marriage licenses for unions that conflict with their consciences, in what is being framed as a challenge to forced nationwide recognition of same-sex “marriage.”
HB 878, which spans less than half a page, simply states that a “person shall not be required to solemnize a marriage if the person has an objection to solemnizing the marriage based on the person’s conscience or religious beliefs,” and that it would take effect immediately upon being signed by the governor. The state Senate’s Judiciary Committee is slated to begin considering the legislation on March 13.
Republican state Rep. Monty Fritts said that, while he was not aware of a case of a local government official being “forced to solemnize a marriage” in the Volunteer State, HB 878 was necessary to get the principle on the record, especially amid a broader climate of hostility toward religious Americans’ “civil liberties and rights.”
“They’re coming for our marriage rights again. And that’s what we fought for the
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