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Originally posted by harleykwin:
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Originally posted by Dave:
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Originally posted by Rob Kamphausen:

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a religion is a private club -- they're allowed to make up the rules of their organization like that. somethings bad? ... god says so! pork is the devil? ok! pray on this mat 11 times a day? sure! whatever. if thats what they think god said, so be it. its their choice.

One thing wrong with that: its discriminatory. You have a private golf club which won't let black guys play? The government can intervene - its discrimination, isn't it? Or a private restaurant which won't allow women? Government can step in and compel them to let in female patrons.

No, the government can't. Not always. I'm assuming that you are talking specifically about the American government? The government can only intervene if there is federal or state funding going to a particular group/club, i.e, it's one of the reasons that VMI and the Citadel were forced to open their doors to women, but why the government could not force that golf club (can't remember the name, don't follow golf) to admit women. Both discriminate, but under different circumstances. One is an institution using public funds, the other a private club using private funding. There's more to it than that, but that is a big component that is considered.

Also, the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment states that, "no state shall ... deny any person within its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws." The topics usually dealt with when regarding constitutional violations like this are: race discrimination (highest level of scrutiny given by the courts), sex discrimination and socio-economic discrimination (least level of scrutiny). I haven't heard of a case where religion has come under the gun (legally, not morally or under negative public opinion, which are separate issues). It may get scrutiny if a class (ex. women, African-Americans) brings a case under the 14th against a religious institution, but I think the Supremes would be loathe to touch it because of the whole separation of church and state issue.
Fair enough. My knowledge of US constitutional law is certainly haphazard.

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I find this argument flawed. Homosexuality is not a racial or physical feature that can be singled out to exclude someone from a club.
No, its a type of behaviour. Why do you draw an arbitrary difference?

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A club is just a group of people who have shared beliefs.
You can't bust up every group of people with individual beliefs, just because other people don't share those beliefs.
I'm sure the Klan agrees with you.