Idaho Christian ministers may face jail for refusing to perform same-sex weddings

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- A pair of Christian ministers in Idaho may face up to $1,000 in fines and six months in prison for refusing to perform same-sex weddings at their for-profit wedding chapel.

Although no charges have been filed yet, Donald and Evelyn Knapp have preemptively filed a lawsuit against the city of Coeur d'Alene, claiming, "For the past several months, the City has privately and publicly threatened to apply [the city's nondiscrimination] Ordinance to the Knapps if same-sex marriage became legal in Idaho and the Knapps declined to perform a same-sex wedding ceremony at The Hitching Post Wedding Chapel."

"Each day the Knapps decline to perform a requested same-sex wedding ceremony, they commit a separate and distinct misdemeanor, subject to the same penalties. Thus, if the Knapps decline a same-sex wedding ceremony for just one week, they risk going to jail for over 3 years and being fined $7,000."

"Right now they are at risk of being prosecuted," the Knapps' attorney Jeremy Tedesco, told Fox News, adding, "The threat of enforcement is more than just credible."

"The government should not force ordained ministers to act contrary to their faith under threat of jail time and criminal fines. The city is on seriously flawed legal ground, and our lawsuit intends to ensure that this couple's freedom to adhere to their own faith as pastors is protected, just as the First Amendment intended."

"Americans are witnesses to the reality that redefining marriage is less about the marriage altar and more about fundamentally altering the freedoms of the other 98 percent of Americans," fretted anti-gay lobbyist Tony Perkins.

"This is the brave new world of government-sanctioned same-sex unions -- where Americans are forced to celebrate these unions regardless of their religious beliefs. Government officials are making clear they will use their government power to punish those who oppose the advances of homosexual activists."