Senator Mike Lee Warns "Hands Off Our Christian Universities and Institutions"
Christian Post is reporting:
Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah, addressed concerns that faith-based schools and institutions would be at risk of losing their tax-exempt status for upholding their biblical belief of traditional marriage if the U.S. Supreme Court delivers a pro-gay marriage ruling this month.
At a Wednesday press conference held in the senator's Capitol Hill office, Lee, along with prominent members of the evangelical higher education community, voiced concern over comments made in the Supreme Court's oral argument in April by the Obama administration's lead attorney, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli.
Lee explained that Verrilli, who testified as a friend of the court on April 28 in favor of making same-sex marriage a national right, was asked by Justice Samuel Alito whether or not making same-sex marriage a constitutional right would allow for the IRS to revoke the tax-exempt statuses of faith-based schools and universities that choose not to recognize same-sex marriage because of their biblical convictions.
"The response uttered by Solicitor General Verrilli was troubling to say the very least. He responded by saying 'I don't deny that. I don't deny that, Justice Alito. It is going to be an issue,'" Lee explained. "He reiterated this response basically four times that this is going to be an issue that he doesn't deny that this is a very real possibility, if not a probability."
"Tax-exempt status for religious institutions has historically been granted because we want to keep the government out of the business of interfering with religion," the senator continued. "It really ought not be in the business of disrupting the business of a church or religious institution."