Now that marriage equality is going nationwide, there’s a looming question of how the ruling will affect Christians. (Well, okay, it’s only looming in the minds of willfully ignorant people.)

The answer, of course, is that gay marriage won’t affect Christians at all.

Pastors who think gays and lesbians have cooties will continue to have the legal right to believe that and act on it in their churches. Everyone knows that. No one has ever said otherwise. The First Amendment already guarantees that right.

But Tennessee State Representatives Andy Holt and Bryan Terry have co-sponsored a bill making that already-in-place law even more clear.

It would protect leaders of any faith who are asked, and refuse, to perform a same-sex marriage against their faith. “The intention of this legislation is to provide legal immunity to religious who wish not to provide ceremonies for same-sex couples. It also allows them to deny the use of their facilities for such ceremonies,” Rep. Holt said.

They make it sound like, without this bill, gay couples would be knocking at the doors of evangelical pastors demanding to be married by someone who is disgusted by their very existence. It didn’t happen before and it’s not going to happen now.

But leave it to Republicans to appease their base with a bill that changes nothing.

Tell you what, guys. If Democrats support this bill, will you stop complaining about gay marriage? Because it’d be such an easy “concession” to make, especially when you consider how every pro-equality group in the nation has been saying the exact same thing for years.

What’s their next trick? Lowering the voting age to 18?

The “Tennessee Pastor Protection Act,” as it’s called, appears to be modeled after a similarly-worthless bill signed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott earlier this month.

(Image via Shutterstock. Thanks to Jen for the link)



