There was a moment today during the Supreme Court's oral arguments on whether gay marriage should be considered a right that should make all Catholics concerned with Catholic education and religious freedom stand up and take notice.

The great Ryan Anderson caught it as did The Register's coverage:

One of the more startling portions of oral arguments today at the Supreme Court was the willingness of the Obama administration’s Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, to admit that religious schools that affirm marriage as the union of a man and a woman may lose their non-profit tax-exempt status if marriage is redefined.

Justice Samuel Alito asked Verrilli whether a religious school that believed marriage was the union of husband and wife would lose their non-profit tax status. The solicitor general answered: “It’s certainly going to be an issue. I don’t deny that. I don’t deny that, Justice Alito. It is it is going to be an issue.”

An issue? What does that mean for the 6,500 plus Catholic schools in the United States or the many Catholic colleges? If gay marriage becomes a right, can a Catholic school deny that right? It would appear not. Or it better pay up.

Justice Antonin Scalia pointed out the threat to religious liberty during his questioning. He said if a state decides to approve gay marriage, exceptions can be made for religious liberty. "If you let the states do it, you can make an exception," he said. "You can’t do that once it is a constitutional proscription."

It will be interesting to see how Catholics would respond to this? Will this be the issue that finally makes plain the true nature of the tolerance brigades? Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall famously said in 1819, "the power to tax involves the power to destroy."

Make no mistake, that is the end goal of many - the banishment of the Church from society and the eradication of Catholic schools. So many governments have tried to destroy the Church. Most of them aren't around anymore. So good luck with that.