Posted on 07/12/2014 3:51:22 AM PDT by daniel1212
The Jerusalem District Court has ordered Moshav Yad Hashmonah, a community of Messianic Jews and Evangelical Christians, to pay compensation to two lesbians after it refused to host a same-sex wedding reception. "We knew we were breaking the law. Somebody needed to do it." says Ayelet Ronen, general secretary for the village.
Judge Moshe Yoad Cohen upheld a lower court ruling that the Moshav violated a law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation.
During the trial, representatives of the Moshav quoted from both Old and New Testaments. "We do not hate homosexuals or lesbians. We love them. We simply told the court that it is God's word in the Bible that calls homosexuality an abomination," Ronen told Israel Today.
She continues: "As a faith-based community we need to be able to refuse events that blatantly oppose our religious beliefs. We explained to the judge that a same-sex celebration would ruin our business. The majority of our clientele are Christians who vigorously oppose gay marriage."
The lesbians' lawyer accused members of Yad Hashmonah of "homophobia," pointing to an announcement published by the Moshav that "no homosexual or lesbian organization will be allowed to rent space for functions on our premises."
That announcement came in response to a flood of requests for same-sex celebrations on the Moshav from gays and lesbians hoping to pass more court decisions requiring the Messianic community to pay out huge compensations.
As a result, the Moshav was forced to shutter their events-hosting business, resulting in huge financial losses. "We used to host an average of 35-50 weddings a year over the past 12 years. Israelis from all over the country, religious and secular, loved to come here. Now there are none," says Ronen.
Judge Cohen held that the Moshav cannot refuse to host a same-sex wedding reception even if doing so goes against their own conscious. The Moshav's lawyer, Michael Decker, challenged that ruling, asking the judge, "What if a Catholic went to an Orthodox Jewish carpentry in [the ultra-Orthodox town of] Bnei Barack and asked them to build a statue of Mary? Would they have to build the idolatrous image?"
The judge replied: "They would have to make it or else be fined. That is the law."
Ronen says that the ruling demonstrates that "even the judge understood that current laws are not providing sufficient protections for religious communities."
According to Ronen, "a lot of religious Jews and rabbis have secretly told us 'good for you. We are glad that you take this stand.' But they will not stand with [Messianic Jews] to change the law. They hate us too much and would never work with us."
In his ruling, the judge upheld the earlier verdict of the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court, ordering Yad Hashmonah to pay the two lesbians damages of 60,000 shekels ($17,000) plus another 30,000 shekels for attorneys' fees for both the original suit and the appeal. "At this time we are not planning another appeal. To lose again would not sound good," says Ronen.
That is a valid reason for the 1st Amendment, but which does not mean the gov. cannot favor one general faith, which it cannot escape doing unless it imagines that its precepts and principals do not have a religious basis, and that the Founders and the people did not operate out of one general faith in opposition to another.
In his discussion of freedom of religion in his monumental Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, Father of American Jurisprudence Joseph Story clarified the meaning of the First Amendment with regard to the priority of Christianity stated:
..the real object of the [First] amendment was not to countenance, much less to advance Mahometanism, or Judaism, or infidelity by prostrating Christianity; but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sects and to prevent any national ecclesiastical establishment which should give to a hierarchy the exclusive patronage of the national government (1833, 3:728, emp. added).
James Iredell, a U.S. Supreme Court judge appointed by George Washington, articulated this point succinctly in 1788 in the debates on the wording of the Constitution:
But it is objected that the people of America may perhaps choose representatives who have no religion at all, and that pagans and Mahometans may be admitted into offices…. But it is never to be supposed that the people of America will trust their dearest rights to persons who have no religion at all, or a religion materially different from their own (Elliot, 1836, 4:194).
Samuel Johnston, governor of North Carolina and member of the Constitution ratifying convention in 1788:
Those who are Mahometans, or any others who are not professors of the Christian religion, can never be elected to the office of President or other high office, but in one of two cases. First, if the people of America lay aside the Christian religion altogether, it may happen. Should this unfortunately take place, the people will choose such men as think as they do themselves. Another case is, if any persons of such descriptions should, notwithstanding their religion, acquire the confidence and esteem of the people of America by their good conduct and practice of virtue, they may be chosen. I leave it to gentlemen’s candor to judge what probability there is of the people’s choosing men of different sentiments from themselves (Elliot, 4:198-199, emp. added). – http://www.apologeticspress.org
Profound. And our greatest enemies are from within. As this page helps to show, an undeclared “war” is being waged against God which has and is costing America (and the world) mightily in souls, lives and money.
Just more of a brotherhood, both rejecting Scripture and its Christ.
An Orthodox rabbi performing a ‘gay marriage’ would cease to be orthodox.
The Council of Torah Sages of Agudath Israel, whose members most have never heard of, actually set the pattern that others follow. They will never accept ‘gay marriage’.
Mizrachis (Religious Zionists), the only ‘orthodox’ that might do this, would transform themselves into the Reform Movement, though the possibility seems remote.
I know all about Romans 1. My Bible is well dotted with notes and Romans 1 has plenty of them, plus insert note pages regarding those scriptures. Romans 1 covers the entire human race, not just Israel. I know the LORD will never turn on His chosen people, but scripture is CLEAR that He WILL discipline them in the Tribulation. That is clear.
Turn them over to the muzzies.
PS: my reply said nothing regarding the church replacing Israel. Where you got that out of it is beyond me.
It is beginning to look like support for the LGBT movement and Homosexual Marriage is the Mark of the Beast.
Unless you put that mark on your forehead, you can’t do business in Israel, Canada, America and soon most of the world.
It is very likely that God will use the devil's disciples to bring judgement upon those nations which have abandoned him. A nation that abandons God cannot expect his divine protection.
Thank you for posting those references to the Founders’ views on religion.
It is things like this that bring into question the survival of the State of Israel.2500 years ago the fortunes of Israel rose and fell as its people and its rulers recognized God and obeyed Him or fell away and worshiped other gods.
What you posted makes me do a double take as to Israel’s relationship to biblical history. I think about the accounting of ‘Sodom and Gomorra’ and other biblical incidents as to God’s warnings on human behavior. If Israel today is as festered with homosexual activity as your post gives, then I take what is happening with Israel as just another action by the supreme creator to demonstrate displeasure. I also muse as to how all the preachers in the USA can ignore such goings on in their promoting Israel as the center of God on this Earth.
Better to lose the whole property, bank account and everything that has earthly value than to eat from the hand of the devil.
In other words,
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Mark 8:36)
You mean those bigoted racist homophobic Neanderthal Climate Change deniers? /sar More from them.
My reply said nothing about you the church replacing Israel, but was meant to support what you said. Sorry for not making that clear, and thanks for your input.
Well, not according to the Bible, but this is an appalling development.
Israel: Here’s the queer bathhouse. The men’s restrooms are just around the corner from the abortuary.
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