🌈 When Faith Is Weaponized: The Texas Supreme Court’s Dangerous Redefinition of Religious Freedom

By Rev. Paula Josephine Sadler, Founding Minister, Universal Rainbow Faith ChurchOctober 2025

🏛️ A Troubling Decision That Reverberates Beyond Texas

In October 2025, the Texas Supreme Court amended the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct to declare that:

“It is not a violation for a judge to refrain from performing a wedding ceremony based upon a sincerely held religious belief.”

At first glance, this may sound like a minor administrative change. But make no mistake — this ruling represents a seismic shift in the balance between personal belief and public duty.

By granting judges the right to refuse marriage ceremonies — including same-sex marriages — on religious grounds, the court has effectively weaponized faith as a license to discriminate.

⚖️ How This Case Began

This historic and deeply troubling decision originated with Judge Dianne Hensley, a Justice of the Peace from Waco, Texas.

Following the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, Judge Hensley refused to perform same-sex weddings, citing her Christian religious beliefs. She continued to officiate opposite-sex marriages but denied LGBTQ+ couples the same service.

In 2019, the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct issued her a public warning for violating judicial ethics, stating that her refusal to serve all citizens equally undermined public confidence in the judiciary.

Rather than comply, Hensley — represented by the conservative law firm First Liberty Institute — sued the State of Texas, claiming that the disciplinary action violated her rights under the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act (TRFRA).

In April 2024, the Texas Supreme Court ruled 5–4 that Hensley’s lawsuit could proceed, creating a major opening for “religious exemption” claims by judges and government officials.

Then, in October 2025, the Court went even further: it amended the Code of Judicial Conduct statewide, officially allowing judges to refuse to perform any wedding ceremony based on “sincerely held religious beliefs.”

This rule change — directly influenced by Hensley’s case and lobbying by First Liberty Institute and Texas Values — now gives legal cover for judges to deny same-sex couples their right to marriage, and potentially any couple whose relationship does not conform to a judge’s religious ideology.

✝️ The Spiritual Infringement: A Violation of True Religious Freedom

As the Founding Minister of the Universal Rainbow Faith Church, I must speak clearly:This is not religious liberty. This is religious supremacy.

The Universal Rainbow Faith teaches that love in all forms — same-sex, heterosexual, transgender, intersex, and beyond — is sacred. Marriage is not merely a civil contract; it is a divine covenant of soul recognition. To deny two consenting adults the right to sanctify that love in a sacred ceremony is not only discrimination — it is a direct infringement upon our religious rights.

If Texas claims that judges can refuse same-sex weddings because of their “sincerely held religious beliefs,” then our members — who hold an equally sincere and sacred belief that same-sex marriage is holy — are having their faith denied and suppressed by the state.

That is the very definition of government establishment of religion: privileging one doctrine while silencing another.

⚖️ Religious Liberty Must Be Equal — Or It Is Not Liberty at All

True religious freedom must be reciprocal.It cannot exist only for those who condemn — it must exist equally for those who bless.

When a gay or transgender couple from Universal Rainbow Faith is told that a judge’s religion forbids their marriage, the state is effectively declaring:

“Your religion is invalid. Only their religion counts.”

That is a blatant violation of the First Amendment’s Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

If the government now protects judges who refuse to serve certain people because of religious belief, then it must also protect the equal right of inclusive religions to perform, recognize, and sanctify those same marriages — without interference, stigma, or state-sanctioned discrimination.

🚨 The Dangerous Door This Opens

This new Texas rule does not end with LGBTQ+ people. It opens a door of selective service where any judge could claim almost any exclusion as a matter of religion:

• A judge could refuse to marry an interracial couple, claiming that their faith forbids “mixing of the races.”

• A judge could deny a divorced person the right to remarry, saying it violates scripture.

• A judge could refuse a person with disabilities, citing beliefs about “wholeness” or “divine purity.”

• A judge could even refuse to officiate marriages between people of different faiths.

This is not freedom. This is state-sponsored moral chaos.

When religion becomes a shield for inequality, it ceases to serve the Divine — and begins to serve human prejudice.

🌈 The Universal Rainbow Faith Response

At Universal Rainbow Faith, we affirm that:

“Every act of love between consenting souls is a reflection of the Divine Creator’s light.”

Our sacred duty is to defend the right to love, marry, and be recognized as holy in the eyes of both Spirit and society.

The Texas decision violates:

1. The Free Exercise rights of affirming religious communities.

2. The Equal Protection rights of LGBTQIA+ citizens.

3. The moral integrity of the judiciary.

4. The universal spiritual principle of Oneness.

It is, in effect, state-imposed theology that declares one version of God as superior to another.

🕊️ A Call to Action: This Must Be Challenged and Overturned

We call upon:

• Faith leaders from all denominations — progressive, affirming, interfaith, and inclusive — to stand together in public witness.

• Civil rights attorneys to file challenges under both the U.S. Constitution and the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, affirming that this decision burdens the faith practices of inclusive churches.

• Lawmakers and citizens to demand equal treatment in all public offices, regardless of who we are or whom we love.

This rule must not stand.It is unconstitutional, unethical, and spiritually corrupt.

To those who believe love is divine — now is the time to act, to speak, and to organize. We must remind the world that religious freedom does not mean the freedom to discriminate.

🌎 Final Reflection: The Sacred Balance of Freedom

The freedom to believe is sacred.The freedom to love is sacred.And the freedom to live one’s truth without persecution — that, too, is sacred.

When one faith is elevated above another, we all lose a piece of our humanity.When one group’s beliefs are used to strip others of dignity, no one’s rights are secure.

As long as the Universal Rainbow Faith and countless other affirming traditions exist, we will not be silent.We will defend love — because love, in all its colors, is the truest expression of God.

Rev. Paula Josephine SadlerFounding Minister, Universal Rainbow Faith Church📍 Las Vegas, Nevada | www.universalrainbowfaith.org