Two reasons for Bob Jones University to be upset.
Opponents of marriage equality are raising all kinds of dire scenarios about how marriage equality will usher in an era of vicious discrimination against Christians, who will face all sorts of outrageous punishments for merely upholding their religious beliefs. But when they say discrimination and punishment, they're really
talking about basic consequences, which many on the right feel they should be exempt from.
It's true that some religious people and institutions will face choices:
First Amendment protections for worship and clergy are clear. Potential conflicts could arise, however, over religious organizations with some business in the public arena. That category ranges from small religious associations that rent reception halls to the public, to the nation's massive network of faith-based social service agencies that receive millions of dollars in government grants.
But those very scenarios make clear that what we're talking about is facing basic consequences. You're a religious association that doesn't want to rent to an LGBT wedding? You don't have to, but you might have to give up renting to the public. You're a faith-based social service agency? Maybe your internal policies will be incompatible with government grants. The thing is, this isn't a disproportionate penalty. It's a basic consequence.
As marriage equality was argued before the Supreme Court:
[Justice Samuel] Alito noted the high court's 1983 decision to revoke the tax-exemption of Bob Jones University in South Carolina because it barred interracial dating. Alito asked if the government would take such action against religiously affiliated schools that oppose same-sex marriage. [Solicitor General Donald] Verrilli said, "It is certainly going to be an issue. I don't deny that."
Let's focus on the penalty we're talking about here. Bob Jones University lost its tax exemption because it prohibited interracial dating. Its tax exemption. As in, it had to pay taxes. That's the punishment. Not exactly persecution at the level of the Spanish Inquisition.
This is how deep the right's culture of victimhood and entitlement goes. They believe they're automatically entitled to tax exemptions and government grants without having to follow the government's rules to get those benefits. They think if they're not allowed to discriminate and still get every possible government benefit, they're victims. And they're gearing up for a decades-long battle to demand that the government see things their way.
