Kansas Governor Sam Brownback has issued an executive order protecting clergy and religious organizations from being penalized for refusing to participate in same-sex marriages.

The Washington Post is reporting on the executive order was issued on Tuesday in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in the Obergefell v. Hodges case that legalized same-sex marriage throughout the country. The governor’s order will bar the state of Kansas from acting against any member of the clergy, religious leader or group that refuses to recognize or participate in a same-sex wedding due to their faith or moral convictions. It also offers specific protection to organizations such as social services or charitable services and guards these institutions from being stripped of their tax-exempt status.

“We have a duty to govern and to govern in accordance with the Constitution as it has been determined by the Supreme Court decision,” Brownback said in a statement. “We also recognize that religious liberty is at the heart of who we are as Kansans and Americans, and should be protected.”

The Supreme Court’s decision overturned a ban on same-sex marriages which was approved by 70 percent of Kansas voters.

Gay activists reacted with hostility to the order and accused the governor of having no respect for the rights of gay and lesbian Kansas. “Instead of welcoming us to first-class citizenship along with everyone else in this state he sends out this executive order that basically says, too bad,” said Tom Witt, executive director of Equality Kansas, to The Wichita Eagle.

Others, such as Sarah Warbelow, legal director for the Human Rights Campaign, agreed, saying that the order has “nothing to do with religious freedom and everything to do with enabling discrimination . . .”

However, the Kansas Catholic Conference applauded the order.

“In America, religious freedom has not just meant the right to hold a religious ceremony in a private setting, confined to the four walls of a church,” the bishops said in a statement. “In this country, religious freedom has meant the right to live one’s faith in one’s daily life, at home and at work, in private and in public. Given the far reaching effects that redefining marriage will have on the law, and the fact that this incredibly consequential change in national social policy was effected by judicial fiat rather than the democratic process, there is tremendous uncertainty as to what the Obergefell decision will mean for everyday people just trying live their faith as they always have.”

This is why Christian leaders throughout the country, including Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, believe the governor made the right decision in issuing the order.

“Already critics are saying that we don't need more protection for religious liberty. Ironically, those saying this, such as Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, are the very people we need protections from: they are pushing to crush our First Amendment right to religious freedom. Given their agenda, we can't have enough rights,” Donohue said in a statement.

“No one is saying that homosexuals will be denied a marriage license. But no one should be coerced into giving his consent to gay weddings, either. Those who say that gay marriages should enjoy the same rights as interracial marriages are mistaken: there never was a plausible religious objection to the latter, but there most certainly is to the former.”

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