Boiling Point Approaching

     Mine, at least:

     Churches in the People’s Republic of Massachusetts have grave concerns about a new anti-discrimination law that could force congregations to accommodate the transgender community – under the threat of fines and jail time.

     The law, which goes into effect in October, does not specifically mention churches or other houses of worship. However, the attorney general, along with the government commission assigned to enforce the law, have a different point of view.

     Attorney General Maura Healey wrote that places of public accommodation include: “auditoriums, convention centers, lecture halls, houses of worship, and other places of public gathering.”

     Note that the ruling class of Massachusetts has arrogated the privilege of defining a house of worship as a “public accommodation” – something never before claimed by the enforcers of any anti-discrimination statute. And it appears they’re serious about it:

     “Even a church could be seen as a place of public accommodation if it holds a secular event, such as a spaghetti supper, that is open to the general public,” the document states. “All persons, regardless of gender identity, shall have the right to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities and privileges of any place of public accommodation.”

     What pastor, regardless of denomination, would say that any of the services held at his church are “not open to the general public?”

     “The law bootstraps the idea of gender identity onto existing Civil Rights laws,” [Massachusetts Family Institute] president Andrew Beckwith tells me. “Even having a sign in your church that says “This Bathroom is for Biological Women Only” could subject the pastor of the church to up to 30 days in jail.”

     Beckwith said under the law, the sign would be treated the same as if it had said, “Whites Only.”

     He said the MFI reached out to the attorney general’s office for clarification on the law and they were instructed to “get an attorney.”

     The threat is real. Ignore the unctuous reassurances such as this one:

     I reached out to the Mass. Commission Against Discrimination and they told me Commissioner Sunila Thomas George said there’s really no need for alarm.

     “By and large, places of worship are not held to the Massachusetts Anti-Discrimination statutes that deal with places of public accommodation,” she said. “We are not by any means saying that the anti-discrimination laws absolutely apply to them.”

     Don’t walk away reassured just yet:

     “There are circumstances where places of worship hold activities at their facilities or in their buildings that are purely secular events,” she said.

     Among the activities that the state considers secular are soup kitchens, day care, housing, and polling places.

     “In those circumstances, places of worship could be seen as open to the public,” Ms. George told me. “The operative word is ‘could.’”

     Let’s imagine that the enforcers of this “anti-discrimination” law are currently all – 100% – devout Catholics who'd never dream of imposing the demands of this statute on a Christian church. Who is willing to bet the well-being of his parish that they’ll always be exactly that?

     Just one more illustration of what we’ve allowed to be done to us in the name of anti-discrimination.