Religious Americans may be in danger following last Friday's Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly said Wednesday.
The ruling had the far left "delirious with joy," not because gay people are allowed to marry, he said, but because it is a knock against religion.
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"It is a fact of American life that the far left despises organized religion, generally speaking," O'Reilly said. "They see churches, synagogues, mosques as oppressive, standing in the way of abortion and a libertine lifestyle."
Though churches are not now required to marry same-sex couples, O'Reilly said the nation could be just one Supreme Court justice appointment away from a 5-4 ruling that changes that.
"For example, the ACLU is now suing the state of Louisiana because Gov. Bobby Jindal protected people of faith from participating in any way in gay weddings," he said. "It's a matter of time before lawsuits are filed against churches and religious organizations to try to strip them of their tax-exempt status if they don't toe the line on gay marriage and other progressive causes."
Churches can't afford to lose their tax-exempt status, so many will back down, O'Reilly said.
Religious leadership in America is weak and won't stand up to the oppression, he said. "It's one of the reasons that the gay marriage lobby was so successful. Few clerics could or would articulate their opposition."