Would it be okay for a clerk to refuse to marry a person that is Jewish to person who is Christian? Would it be okay for a clerk to refuse to marry an interacial couple?
In a marriage license, if I'm not mistaken, there is no reference to any person's religion....therefore a clerk has no knowledge if she is signing off on a Jewish/Christian marriage or not. Besides that, even the strictest of religions see a homosexual "union" as MUCH worse than marrying outside one's faith. In any event, since no one in government has a right to know a person's religion...its immaterial to the clerk who cannot know that.
Except for perhaps the Arian Nations, NO recognized religion today understands cross-racial marriage as wrong. The bible and Church tradition are silent on that issue--condemnation of "miscegenation" as it was once called, was a pseudo-scientific theory, and a cultural practice, NOT religious (even if people tried to make it so).
A homosexual couple though is entirely obvious--and--has it's ethics fly in the face of 4,000 years of recorded ethics in the history in ALL cultures. Even the ancient Greeks, who fully accepted homosexual practice....never pretended homosexual unions were marriage.
To force someone to participate in something their ancient faith has ALWAYS condemned (and ALL forms of Christianity have--until liberal Protestants over the last 30 years became "smarter" than all that....) is a straight-up denial of religious freedom, plain and simple.
What about the divorce example? Marriage applications in many states (including NY) ask for plenty of information about previous marriage/divorces. Should a town clerk who is Catholic (or another religion that does not believe in divorce/remarriage) be able to refuse to sign off on marriage licenses where one or both parties were previously married?