The other shoe has officially dropped.
Many warned of the adverse effects same-sex “marriage” could have on religious liberty. As exemplified by a ruling rendered by the New Mexico Supreme Court last Thursday, these fears are being realized.
The highest court in the Land of Enchantment ruled that a Christian photographer violated the state’s Human Rights Act when she declined to take photos of a lesbian “commitment” ceremony.
Because Elaine Huguenin of Elane Photography was unable to reconcile the ceremony with her religiously-based beliefs, she could not participate in the event without violating her conscience. Huguenin helped the couple find another photographer, but the refusal to partake subjected her and her co-owner husband to a complaint before the New Mexico Human Rights Commission.
That body subsequently found Huguenin engaged in “sexual orientation” discrimination prohibited under state law and ordered Elane Photography to pay the attorney fees of the two women who filed the complaint. Fast forward a few years later, following the approval of an intermediate appellate court, the New Mexico Supreme Court upheld this finding, compelling Huguenin to act contrary to her Christian faith.
The concurrence, authored by Justice Richard Bosson, reveals the thinking behind the decision.
“At its heart, this case teaches that at some point in our lives all of us must compromise, if only a little, to accommodate the contrasting values of others,” Justice Bosson wrote. “The Huguenins are free to think, to say, to believe, as they wish; they may pray to the God of their choice and follow those commandments in their personal lives wherever they lead. The Constitution protects the Huguenins in that respect and much more. But there is a price, one that we all have to pay somewhere in our civic life…it is price of citizenship.”
According to the court, all of us must have missed the fine print in our citizenship agreement. We are to forsake our religious convictions when we do business.
Sorry, but this “price” is too high.
Post by Nate Kellum
