Making Sense of Marriage Equality and Religious Freedom – Sept. 17

Recent court decisions on marriage equality have sparked ongoing political debate about religious freedom, with some public officials refusing to recognize the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision legalizing same-sex marriage, and some state legislators considering ways to protect public officials who refuse to grant marriage licenses on religious grounds. Similarly, some business establishments have sought to use religious freedom as a grounds for denying services to same-sex couples.

To complicate matters, the United Church of Christ, a progressive denomination, appealed to religious freedom in their recent legal challenge to North Carolina’s Amendment 1, which made it unlawful for the state to recognize same-sex marriage unions and for clergy to perform such unions. 

Is marriage equality a challenge to religious freedom? Is “traditional marriage” under threat? What are the legal obligations of public businesses to serve same-sex couples or of public officials to grant same-sex marriage licenses? And what civil rights issues remain for the LGBTQIA community?

Join us for a discussion of these issues and more, as we seek to make sense of marriage equality and religious freedom, with the following panelists from our community:

• Enrique Armijo (Associate Professor of Law)
• Matthew Antonio Bosch (Director, Gender and LGBTQIA Center)
• Lynn Huber (Associate Professor of Religious Studies)
• Randy Orwig (Pastor, Elon Community Church)
• Brian Pennington (Director, Center for the Study of Religion, Culture & Society)

Join us Thursday, Sept. 17, at 5:30 p.m. in the McBride Gathering Space of the Numen Lumen Pavilion. This event is sponsored by the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life, the Gender and LGBTQIA Center, and the Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society. All are welcome.