Joyce Rothchild: Freedom of bigotry

Regarding the June 12 news article “N.C. officials now free to avoid gay marriages”: Since Rep. Mike Hager feels the right thing has been done to protect magistrates and registers of deeds from performing acts they have a sincere religious objection to, how about serving atheists, Muslims, Jews and other non-Christians?

Does he feel they have the right to ask the religious affiliation before agreeing to perform a marriage ceremony or register a deed? (And are civil marriages even recognized in the church?)

To what other civic duties do these public servants have a religious objection? I have a religious objection to bigotry and social injustice, but my taxes support proponents of those who practice such objectionable actions.

This story was originally published June 20, 2015 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Joyce Rothchild: Freedom of bigotry."