PROVIDENCE – William Munroe of Exeter has no problem standing up for his beliefs as a Catholic to ensure that marriage remains as an institution that is between one man and one woman, even though some of those who support same-sex marriage have tried to vilify him.
Munroe, a former member of the Exeter-West Greenwich Regional School Committee, described the backlash of being called a bigot and a homophobe when he voted in 2005 against accepting a social studies textbook into the high school curriculum that framed same-sex marriage as a civil rights issue.
“If you try to practice your religious beliefs, and raise your family with those values, you’re going to be called a bigot. Your rights are going to be taken away from you," said Munroe, a 4th Degree Knight of Columbus who is a parishioner at St. Thomas More Church in Narragansett.
Defenders of traditional marriage say that legalizing same sex marriage, even when promoted in good faith by people on the other side of the debate, creates a host of unintended consequences and poses serious threats to religious freedom.
According to the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal alliance of Christian attorneys, Christian views on marriage and human sexuality "will be challenged if same-sex marriage is accepted by law."
"If this happens and God’s plan for marriage is dismantled, then your religious freedom–and the God-given, constitutionally protected rights that enable you to freely live out your faith–will virtually collapse," according to the Alliance Defense Fund.
In 2007, two women filed a complaint in New Jersey after a Methodist ministry denied them the use of a pavilion for their civil union ceremony. The state revoked the ministry's tax-free status for its refusal to rent out the space for a lesbian ceremony, according to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
The Alliance Defense Fund also cited the case of a young Christian photographer who was ordered by the New Mexico Civil Rights Commission to pay nearly $7,000 in attorneys’ fees after she declined to photograph the commitment ceremony of a same-sex couple, although same sex marriage and civil unions are not recognized in that state.
In Iowa, the Des Moines Human Rights Commission in 2007 found the local YMCA in violation of public accommodation laws for refusing to extend family membership privileges to a lesbian couple who had entered into a civil union in Vermont.
"These efforts by the opposition to thwart religious freedom are just the tip of the iceberg," says the Alliance Defense Fund.
Another example that is highlighted by opponents of same-sex marriages focuses on the 2006 decision by Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, the archbishop of Boston, to halt Boston Catholic Charities' century-old adoption service rather than submit to a state law requiring it to place children with homosexual couples.
Also in Massachusetts—where same-sex marriage was legalized in a 2004 ruling by the state's Supreme Judicial Court—parents sued the Lexington School District after it was discovered that a second grade teacher had read a book entitled "King and King" to her students.
The book told the story of a gay prince who married another gay man and lived happily ever after. Parents who objected to the book sued the school district, but lost. In a federal ruling that upheld a state court's decision, the judge said that the parents did not have a right to restrict what a public school may teach their children, even if the content runs counter to their values and morals.
Attorney Dan Avila, associate director for policy and research at the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, said that while there were no statewide curriculum mandates that same sex marriage and homosexuality be taught in the schools, anecdotal information indicates the educational landscape in that state has been "radically altered."
“Based on feedback that I am getting at the Massachusetts Catholic Conference from diocesan officials, Catholic kids across the commonwealth clearly are being influenced by the public schools to embrace same-sex marriage as a civil right,” said Avila, adding that Rhode Islanders’ best option is to prevent the state Legislature from legalizing same-sex marriage.
“Once the law is changed, in my opinion, there is very little that parents can do, short of removing their children altogether from the public schools,” Avila said. “For by then, it is too late.”
“The facts remain clear; the legalization of same-sex marriage has had profound impacts on states and families, and will have similar impacts in Rhode Island if the Legislature redefines marriage,” said Christopher Plante, executive director of the Rhode Island chapter of the National Organization for Marriage,
Providence attorney Scott T. Spear, a board member of NOM-RI, said during a speech at the Providence Diocese' Human Life Guild Day that religious liberty could be subverted if the issue of same sex marriage is granted constitutional protection.
“We live in an age where the Supreme Court decides how much religion it will tolerate in America today,” Spear said.
