The so called Pastor Protection Act is moving forward in the Florida Senate while it awaits a hearing on the House floor. And while some are pushing against the legislation saying it unfairly targets the state’s same sex community, others are pushing to expand it.
The presentation of the bill in the Senate Community Affairs Committee Tuesday left little question about what the bill is meant to address. Sen. Aaron Bean (R-Jacksonville) is the chamber’s sponsor.
“On Friday June 26, 2015 The United States Supreme Court in Obergefell versus Hodgins declared a constitutional right to same sex marriage. However, it did not address whether churches, religious organizations, related groups or certain individuals may be required to perform any marriage or provide services, accommodations, facilities goods or privileges for the related purpose if such action would violate a sincerely held religious belief,” Bean says.
Bean says his measure would ensure pastors or other religious leaders aren’t forced to perform marriages that violate their religious beliefs and would help protect them from lawsuits. And while some say the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides that protection, others like Miami Pastor Abraham Rivera say greater protection is needed. Rivera represents Mission Miami, a coalition of about 700 churches.
“Government can and does and is encroaching on our rights. We’re pastors. We’re not politicians and we’re not lawyers and we can’t afford to fight legal fights just to be able to do what our First Amendment rights are.”
But others like Equality Florida’s Nadine Smith say the bill leads to a slippery slope," Rivera says.
“It is a slippery slope for a baker to say “I bake cakes, but I don’t bake cakes for your kind. Or for a restaurant owner to say I serve food, but I don’t serve food for your kind.' And in the market place we all have the right to be expected to be treated the same – regardless of my race, regardless of my gender, regardless of my sexual orientation, regardless of my gender identity,” Smith says.
Meanwhile, Sen. Jeff Brandes (R-St. Petersburg) says if the state is going to move forward with the measure, he’d like to see it expanded.
“I agree with the argument that this bill isn’t needed. I really do. And what concerns me most about this bill is that we’re saying ‘we’re protected. The pastors are. But our flock isn’t. And I believe that if we’re going to do something with this, you should say not only are the pastors protected, the entire flock ought to be protected as well. But you’re not protecting the flock. You’re protecting just the pastors," Brandes says. "Why are we protecting just the pastors and not the flock?”
Bean, the bill’s sponsor says that’s something he considered when filing the measure, but he says the measure as it stands doesn’t go that far.
“It gives not only protection to pastors, but churches in general so it would be their accommodations and their halls and employees of that church. It does not, one of our speakers here talked about photographers, it does not carry over to anyone who is not affiliated with the religious institution,” Bean says.
Meanwhile, Sen. Joseph Abruzzo (D-Wellington) is raising concerns about other religious beliefs. He says some religions could discriminate against minorities or women. And Bean says the measure protects all religions.
“If they’re a church or religious organization or a temple or a mosque and they felt that they didn’t want to perform this marriage because of their deeply held religious belief then they wouldn’t be held liable for that decision,” Abruzzo says.
The measure passed the committee 6-to-1, with Abruzzo casting the single no vote.
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