Question 1 Funded Mostly by Churches

I would think passing around a collection during mass to ban C-I-V-I-L marriage is a violation of a church's tax exempt status. http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17112 They are teetering into 501 (c)(4) category, and while an IRS crackdown would engage the paranoids... Maybe we should just start a church so our donations don't get taxed either. Church of the Roman Centurion, anyone?

The only way to stop this madness is to change the use of the Referendum, especially after the Legislature votes and is passed and signed into law. The conservatives always said that this is the way to make law, through the legislature, and not by activist judges. Well now that legislatures are voting in our favor, they pull the Referendum out of their "tool box", to overturn the law. Also, churches that raise money that go to take away someones civil rights need to be taxed. When did referendums come to be used in this way, to take away another's rights?

if a church of any type uses church funds to back this type of law then that church should and will soon i hope , loose thier tax exception. come on maine , you ran a great cource dont stop until every last church, group looses thier tax excemption

There are two ways in which todays 'organized' religion's must be treated. FIRST, they must be called for what they truly are, and that, to use the previous President's term, is 'Axis of Evil'. It does not matter which religious organization it is, from catholic to baptist to luthern to muslim to whatever, they all belong to the 'Axis of Evil'. Their push of outright 'HATE' gives them this title without any reserves; however, organized religion IS is reason why the world is in termoil and WAR. SECONDLY, we need to UNITE, if that is possible, become a grassroots group that will push for the elimination of 'TAX EXEMPT' status for ALL religious organizations. CALL your Representative in Congress, CALL your Senator TODAY. Heathcare will be out of the way and 2009/2010 is a good...GREAT time to rise up an push for the eliminiation of TAX EXEMPT status for ALL religious organizations...churchs....schools....NOW IS THE TIME...FIGHT BACK WHERE IT WILL INDEED HURT THESE IDIOTS....

We are not all Yahoos up here!! There were 31 states that voted against gay marriage including the most progressive state, California. Blame it on the Yes on 1 highly emotionally exploitative ad campaigns and that only 50% of the voting public got out to vote. The "No " people spent too much time in the southern populated part of the state and not enough time in the rural areas. They spent an inordinate amount of time in Hallowell and we get it here. The biggest problem is Americans don't trully understand what a democracy is and what it means to live in a true democratic society. I am offended that you think we are all a bunch of yahoos, we are not.

To Kay, yes you're right, there are limited number of christians, and churches, who support our right to be married. However, they are strangely silent in their support. I have yet to see one of these groups muster their congregation and stand up to their bigoted sister churches.

Instead of moping around, complaining and thinking about what could have been we need to have laws put on the books where Churches, Temples, Mosques and Synagogs cannot interfere with politics.

Some church groups campaigned AGAINST but some other church groups campaign FOR same sex marriage. The list of supporters included a Catholic group and there is a smaller but dedicated group of Unitarian Universalists campaigning under the Standing on the Side of Love - see http://www.uua.org/socialjustice/ssl/

Why not getting something going as far as banning divorce. If these people want to f up our lives, why cant we throw something like this back at them. Let's see how they really think about marriage when we take away their right to divorce. And also, why not have congress pass a law saying second class citizens should not have to pay taxes. I want my money back, NOW!!!! My father lives in Maine and I can guarantee he voted against gay marriage. So many backwards people up there, yahoo territory.

Ok, what, do we expect people in Churches not to participate in the Democratic process? We spend most of the time calling them stupid, inbred and backwards and then expect them to stay out of the process while we still have a .002 percent voter turnout. I think this tax exempt status is a red-herring sometimes except for like the Mormon Church. I'll bet you every person in Church was out voting that day. Maybe if people weren't so fucking apathetic, including gays and lesbians who don't vote AT ALL then they wouldn't be sitting here complaining. I am an atheist and gay but you can't advocate stripping people of representation as a way of forcing the government to enforce equal protection under the law because the government is too coward to have some damn integrity. Take your money from Nordstrom's and HRC, and give it to the ACLU, the Matthew Shepard Foundation, and to the causes in your own states. Outspend them, out vote them and raise hell. This headline is also redundant.