In a 2-1 ruling the U.S. Court of Appeals of the First Circuit ruled Christian private schools that take any funds from the state of Maine can legally be required to openly accept and celebrate homonormativity even though it directly contradicts God’s Word.
The court wrote, “Just as combatting religious discrimination qualifies as a legitimate governmental pursuit, so too combatting sexual-orientation and gender-identity discrimination rises to that level.”
The ruling effectively forces Christian schools to withdraw all business with the state. If upheld by SCOTUS, it would create a hierarchy of value of rights that favored sexuality and gender fluidity over religious belief. This would end religious freedom in America, as it has ended, for now, in Maine.
Religious schools that get public funds must follow Maine’s antidiscrimination laws, court rules – Texarkana Gazette
News Source
EXCERPT:
Private religious schools that receive public funds must follow state laws that prohibit discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation or religion, a federal court ruled last week.
The ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston came after two schools — Saint Dominic Academy in Auburn and Bangor Christian Schools, run by Crosspoint Church — asked for exemptions from the Maine Human Rights Act so they wouldn’t be required to enforce policies that contradicted their religious beliefs, such as admitting students who were openly gay or transgender, for instance, or requiring teachers to use students’ preferred pronouns.
The appeals court largely upheld a lower court’s decision denying this exemption, but it differed in its opinion of the state’s rules around religious expression and asked that the lower court reconsider how that provision applies to religious schools.
