Fr. Mark Hodges
WASHINGTON, D.C., January 10, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – In a victory for religious freedom, the United States’ Supreme Court let stand a Mississippi law protecting Christians and other religious people from punishment by the government when they decline to provide services for same-sex “wedding” ceremonies.
The nation’s highest court declined to hear an appeal of Mississippi’s “Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act,” signed into law by pro-life Governor Phil Bryant in April 2016, but blocked ever since.
“We are pleased that the Supreme Court declined to take up these baseless challenges,” Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot said. He said that the entire purpose of the Mississippi law was so citizens “don’t live in fear of losing their careers or their businesses simply for affirming marriage as a husband-wife union.”
The law restrains government from punishing Christians who opt out of officiating or participating in homosexual “marriages.” It does not allow businesses to refuse service in general, but only applies to personal affirmation by participation in ceremonies that violate their sincerely held beliefs.
The law also protects entities that keep bathrooms for men and women separate.
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