GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) After a pro-gay group charged into an evangelical church shouting “Jesus was a homo,” and “It’s OK to be gay,” more than two dozen Michigan lawmakers want to hike penalties for disrupting a religious service.
The bill, introduced Thursday (March 5) by Republican State Rep. Rick Jones, would increase the fine for disruption of a religious service to $5,000. Currently, the misdemeanor charge carries a $500 fine and up to 93 days in jail, Jones said.
The bill currently has 28 co-sponsors, both Democrats and Republicans.
The $500 fine is “chump change” that’s no disincentive to keep groups from charging into churches, mosques or synagogues. Jones, a retired sheriff, said he would support an even higher penalty if he could get it passed.
“I would love to make a one-year felony, I would love to do that, however I have to be politically astute and realize that the governor isn’t going to sign something that puts more people in prison without the funding to pay for it,” he said.
The proposed bill follows a Nov. 9 clash inside the Mount Hope Church in Delta Township, Mich., near Lansing, where the gay protest group Bash Back disrupted the pastor’s sermon against homosexuality and gay marriage.
In a news release, Bash Back referred to Mt. Hope Church as “a deplorable anti-queer megachurch.” Jones said the group crossed the line, and hopes a stiffer fine would dissuade similar protests in the future.
“What we’re talking about is violating one of the basic freedoms that Americans have,” Jones aid. “We have freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, freedom to protest, but one of the most sacred freedoms we have is the freedom of religion. When somebody doesn’t like what my minister or somebody’s priest says, and they feel they can disrupt it, that’s a violation of one of the country’s most basic freedoms.”
