Religious freedoms are being affected in Canada and Sweden, two countries that have legalized same-sex marriage.

Ministers in Canada have been sued and subjected to monetary penalties and governmental infringement of their religious liberties for preaching against same-sex marriage:

• A Catholic bishop in Calgary was the target of complaints filed with the Alberta Human Rights Commission because he issued a pastoral letter urging Catholics to oppose same-sex marriage.
• An Alberta pastor, also the target of a complaint filed with the Alberta Human Rights Commission, was ordered to never again publicly express his religious belief that homosexuality is immoral and was required to pay $5,000 to the complainant as “damages for pain and suffering."
• A Human Rights Commission complaint was also filed against a Catholic priest for quoting from the Bible, the Catholic Catechism, and papal encyclicals.

In Sweden, a Christian pastor was charged with committing a “hate crime” by preaching a sermon citing biblical proscriptions of homosexual behavior. He was convicted and sentenced to serve a month in prison. His conviction was overturned on appeal, but prosecutors appealed to the Swedish supreme court seeking to have it reinstated. The supreme court ultimately ruled in his favor.

Many argue that Americans need not fear governmental repression of religion given the historically strong constitutional protections of our religious liberties. However, in recent years as same-sex couples have aggressively asserted their “rights” in the courts, there has been an unmistakable trend toward the expansion of the legal privileges of same-sex couples at the expense of the religious liberties of people who morally oppose the legitimization of same-sex relationships.

Vote Yes on Proposition 8 to preserve religious liberties and freedom of expression.