Questionable Tactics in Same-Gender Marriage Vote
Gov. Andrew Cuomo: Large and In Charge
As someone who admittedly does not closely follow local politics, I was shocked by reports emerging from Democrats and Republicans alike about details from the night of the same-sex marriage legislation. From my article for World Magazine:
“All lobbyists were shut out for two weeks, then it was rammed through the voting process,” said Duane Motley, a pastor who is founder and senior lobbyist of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedom. During the vote, he said, state troopers guarded the chambers, with senators locked in while the public remained locked out: “They [Republicans] even let Cuomo’s chief of staff on the floor to hurry the process so it was done for 11:00 news.” Governor Andrew Cuomo orchestrated the campaign and brought together unlikely allies who may bolster his Democratic base—and national profile for a 2016 White House run.
Motley said lawmakers also failed to follow normal rules of debate on the question of a religious exemption. “This was the executive branch telling the legislative branch how to operate,” he said, something he’s not seen in 29 years of closely following statehouse politics.
Republican Sen. Stephen Saland leveraged his vote to negotiate the sentences that became the religious exemption. Saland said it was “imperative” that the law protect from legal action clergy who refuse to perform same-sex ceremonies, “so as not to interfere with religious beliefs, which I hold as important as equal rights.”
But Mathew Staver, chairman of The Liberty Counsel, said, “The least of concerns is having to perform ceremonies. This will affect children in schools who will be forced to listen to immoral teaching. Businesses will be forced to comply as though these were civil-rights issues.”
“Same-sex marriage is being wielded as a weapon to push the gospel out of American society altogether,” said Peter Wolfgang, president of Family Institute of Connecticut Action, says growing acceptance of same-sex marriage is ominous, and will continue to affect businesses and charities that refuse to facilitate gay marriages.
Full article at World Magazine.
Do you think Christians in NY and other states will see increasing conflicts with religious freedom, or do you think people are overreacting?
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