Jason Carter is the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter. He’s running for governor in Georgia as a Democrat on his grandfather’s tattered coattails. “Carter’s biggest asset appears to be that he is the grandson of the nation’s most ineffective president, former peanut farmer Jimmy Carter. As evidenced by Carter’s record as a state senator, the apple, or perhaps more appropriately the peanut, doesn’t fall very far from the tree.”

This is just what Georgia needs, a Jimmy Carter clone as governor. Please spare us.

A couple of weeks ago Jason Carter said the following about same-sex marriage:

“This issue is one that divides people in this state in different contexts but I’ll tell you where I stand. I don’t believe you can ever tell a church who to marry. I don’t believe that you can ever tell someone’s religion what to believe. But the government should dole out those rights and responsibilities equally.”

If the government can “dole out rights,” it can also define the extent of those rights that could result in the exclusion of the rights of others.

Apparently Jason Carter is not following what has happened to a florist, photographer, and baker over the issue of same-sex marriage. They were fined for not supporting same-sex marriage in their businesses and were forced to attended sensitivity (government mandate re-education) classes.

Then there’s the case of the Hitching Post Wedding Chapel in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, where the city council is forcing the owners to perform same-sex marriages or face stiff fines and even imprisonment if they do not comply.

Jason Carter must also be unaware of what’s happening in Houston, Texas, where the legal arm of the city government is demanding the following from pastors who took a stand against a same-sex civil rights ordinance.

The city is demanding that pastors “‘turn over, among other things: ‘[a]ll speeches, presentations, or sermons related to [the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance] HERO, the Petition, Mayor Annise Parker, homosexuality, or gender identity.”

The subpoenas have been amended to exclude “sermons.” The problem is, a sermon is a form of speech. And why is lesbian Mayor Annise Parker mentioned? What does mentioning her name have to do with whether the names on the petitions are valid or not?

Jason Carter does not understand that governments are imposing stiff penalties on anybody – church related or not – that will not comply with the blatant discrimination laws being imposed on businesses and religious establishments that do not want to participate in same-sex marriages.

I suspect that there are a lot of Catholic priests that won’t marry non-Catholics or Rabbis that won’t marry non-Jews. Many Protestant ministers won’t marry non-Christians.

Some will claim that IRS law forbids churches from addressing political issues. This law, posted on the IRS website is the one usually cited I order to silence pastors:

“Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.”

First, the petition drive was not on behalf of or in opposition to a candidate; it was in opposition to a piece of legislation. Second, the First Amendment is not a party to the city’s request for subpoenas. The Houston City Council in not a federal jurisdiction. The IRS and its laws have no authority over a petition drive. Third, there is nothing in the Texas Constitution that prohibits pastors from engaging in politics.

Article I, Sec. 8: FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND PRESS; LIBEL. Every person shall be at liberty to speak, write or publish his opinions on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that privilege; and no law shall ever be passed curtailing the liberty of speech or of the press.

Notice that it does not say “except pastors who speak on political issues.”

Fourth, even if what is going on in Houston was a 501(c)(3) issue, it would be unconstitutional since the First Amendment makes it clear that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

This constitutional prohibition nullifies what the 1954 IRS regulation states since it was Congress that made the law.

The courts have taken over the same-sex marriage issue. It’s a fait accompli as states are being overruled by unelected judges, going against state legislatures, and the will of the people. Jason Carter, as well as Democrats generally, is OK with it since these are their kind of judges. Why even have governors and state legislatures if judges can by force of law tell a state what to do? Why is Jason Carter even running for office? He should work for making judges judicial gods, something they already are.