What are the first words that come to mind at the thought of church? Charity, holiness, purity, and good will to all. But blackmail?

Due to a gay marriage law being proposed in Washington D.C., the archdiocese of Washington has put the district in an unfair, difficult position. In an immature attempt at blackmailing the city into following the Catholic ideal of heterosexual marriage, the church has threatened to retract its charity funds from D.C. Even with the possibility of thousands of dollars worth of charity money being robbed from the impoverished citizens of the district, D.C. has, surprisingly, held strong against the church’s ultimatum and has continued to push for the legalization of same sex marriage.

According to a Dec. 2 Washington Post article, the D.C. council voted in favor of gay marriage by an astonishing majority vote of 11-2. This vote will be followed by a second round of voting in two weeks that could possibly lead to the city’s first legal marriage of same sex couples in the coming spring.

Although D.C.’s decision to remain strong and not surrender to the church’s forceful ultimatum is admirable, many of its citizens may undoubtedly suffer from this commendable show of courage should the Archdiocese carry out its threat.

According to a Nov. 12 Washington Post article, the Catholic Charities, the church’s medium for social services, supports 68,000 of the district’s population including a full third of the homeless demographic. One can only hope that the district finds other funding in order to support its residents. The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington’s main issue with continuing to provide charity is that the proposed bill might force the Archdiocese to give employee benefits as well as other benefits to same-sex married couples, causing them to compromise their religious beliefs by forcing them to recognize same-sex marriage.

Although the Catholic Church has not lowered itself to illegal methods in order to halt the possible legalization of gay marriage, their ultimatum is still an issue worth examining.

Pressuring the citizens of D.C. into blocking the gay marriage law by vindictively depraving the needy of necessary funds is essentially forcing D.C. to choose between two paramount issues their right to religious freedom or their desire to legally support the freedoms of their fellow man. U.S. citizens are not supposed to have to choose between these two freedoms, they are supposed to automatically be granted both. Should D.C. give in to the church’s demands, it will defame the American reputation as well as the foundation that it was built upon.

In addition, if the Catholic Archdiocese can get away with enforcing their values and ideologies on the American public, other religious organizations will surely begin attempting to legally administer their values by withholding their charities or through other similarly merciless ways. Hopefully, the district will realize that their stand is even more monumental than protecting gay rights. It represents the protection of the American right to dictate which values one choose to live by instead of caving in to the demands of others.

After the election of a black president, one would think that discrimination against those who are different would have at least been weakened, but the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington D.C.’s ruthless attempt at blocking gay marriage has exemplified the fact that discrimination is alive and well, and that many will still do the unthinkable such as the blackmailing of an entire district and its deserving innocents in order to continue the bigotry.