Jackson50 on 17 December 2008
| jv103 said:Hey, I got a question. (since many of you seem to be aspiring civil justice lawyers) If I go to a church and lets say I'm an atheist, and I want to receive the eucharist for whatever reason, can the church deny me the eucharist for (christian chirst) being an unrepetant atheist? I guess this sort of situation would apply to the homosexuality thing as well? Would the government be infringing on the "freedom of religion" part of the first ammendment? Or do civil rights trump civil liberties in this case? Your thoughts? |
A church would fit the definition of a private club as defined by Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That means a church can deny someone the Eucharist. The government will look at a few factors to determine whether or not a club is indeed private: whether or not it exerts control over operations (a church satisfies this), whether or not membership is selective (a church satisfies this), and a few others. Considering the Eucharist is given to church members, the church can deny this service.
