is there a law...

or court case that mandates what a church or minister or rabbi or priest must do?

yes, i know that there are cases on record that say that an adoption agency cannot discriminate against someone because of their sexual orientation, but the caveat here is if the agency is receiving governmental funding. the provision reflects that the government cannot sanction a religion over another or support religious beliefs and the use of tax monies that discriminate against someone would be against federal and constitutional law.

the spate of laws being debated in state legislatures right now on same-sex marriage or civil unions almost all have some language in them excluding a church from being forced to marry someone that they don't want to in light of their dogma.

again, is there a law or court case that mandates that they would have to do that?

it seems to me that these provisions in and of themselves are pandering and creating a protected group - religion.

don't get me wrong, i don't give one wit if a church doesn't want to marry someone. the Catholic church refused to marry my parents because there wasn't enough time before Dad was shipped over to England during WWII. the bans of marriage requirement could not be met, so they wouldn't marry them. they married in an Anglican church here in Chicago [my father's religion], and he went off to war.

the problem came when i was to be baptized. when the Catholic church discovered they were not married in a sanctioned church ceremony, they wouldn't baptize me. my parents remarried an hour before my baptism in the church rectory.

[the best part of this for me is that the church considered me a bastard. i loved it and have gotten all the mileage i can out of it over the years!]

hypothetically, some foolettas are going to demand their church marry them somewhere down the line and take the church or minister or priest to court. the way i read the existing laws, this type of case would be tossed out before it even got to an actual trial.

if the churches are afraid of this, then put the silly provisions in the laws. i don't think it makes a difference one way or another.

except...

by now creating a special group - the religious - who do not want lgbtq being considered a special group because they don't believe in special groups.

hellloooooo!