I'm not a lawyer so I don't know all the legal delicacies, however, in general, the only way the state could force a church to rent out its sanctuary to outsiders is if the church had already set a precedent for doing this. Some (heterodox) churches will rent out their sanctuary space for concerts (they are more auditoriums than sanctuary - the acoustics are usually good and there is lots of already installed seating, i.e. pews, etc). If you set a precedent for renting out the space to outside groups for secular or even quasi religious events, then indeed the state might have a lever in the non-discrimination laws. There would be ways around this - like incorporating the guidelines for such rentals into the corporate bylaws which set out the limitations of the corporate body to allow such rentals - however, if you rent your space out already, it becomes a precedent and opens the door. OTOH, if you never rent out your sanctuary for any non-liturgical function then there is no precedent and you simply refuse on the basis that the space is not available for rent. Just because someone wants to rent the space for some purpose does not mean that they can - it has to be space that is already determined to be available for rent (advertised as such, or as mentioned by precedent). When one is citing such cases that seem a bit beyond the usual expectation, it is always important to gather all the information so that you know what really happened. Fr David Moser