Visitors line up outside U.S. Supreme Court in Washington Oct. 6, 2014, to get a seat inside to watch oral arguments on the first day of the new term. (CNS/Jonathan Ernst, Reuters)
Posted on 02/19/2015 3:47:49 PM PST by NYer
The likelihood that the Supreme Court next June will announce its discovery of a constitutional right to same-sex marriage raises an obvious question for the Catholic Church: What do we do now?
Two steps come to mind. First, press for strong legal protections for individuals and institutions conscientiously unable to cooperate with a legal regime that requires sweeping concessions to the LGBT agenda. Second, give serious thought to the possibility that the Church should quit serving as the government’s agent in legitimating marriages.
That firm decisions at the top levels of the Church are urgently needed couldn’t be more obvious. Consider a Washington Post editorial trashing Alabama authorities for resisting a Supreme Court order on behalf of gay marriage in that state. The court told Alabama to get cracking even though the court itself remains months away from a constitutional ruling.
“The [gay rights] movement is on the verge of a historic victory,” the February 11 editorial declared. “But that doesn’t mean activists and allies have succeeded in transforming the culture that for so long denied gay men and lesbians equal treatment.”
Transforming culture? Of course. The Post editorial noted some steps to take.
“Marriage equality is just one of many goals. State legislatures and federal lawmakers need to be convinced to enhance civil rights protections for gay men and lesbians—prohibiting employment discrimination, for example, or discrimination in business transactions. In places like Alabama, that will take a lot more effort.”
One form it’s already taken can be seen not in conservative Alabama but libertarian Oregon. There the Christian owners of a bakery were found guilty of violating anti-discrimination law by declining—in 2013, before the state even recognized same-sex marriage—to supply a wedding cake for a lesbian couple. Bakery owners Aaron and Melissa Klein cited religious convictions as their reason.
According to the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, the Kleins face fines as high as $150,000. The actual amount will be decided in March. A hundred and fifty thousand for a wedding cake? Is this the Post’s “a lot more effort”? Iron-clad legal protection against state coercion to fall in line with gay marriage is desperately needed for individuals like the Kleins and institutions like the Catholic Church.
It won’t be easy. The Catholic News Agency (CNA) reports that the Ford and Arcus Foundations have given several million dollars to the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups to devise ways of blocking the religious freedom argument for not cooperating with same-sex marriage. If religious groups want First Amendment protections, they’ll have to fight.
Urgently needed, too, is consideration of whether the Church should stop registering marriages for the state. Increasingly, it becomes hard to see how the Church can continue as government’s collaborator in this matter once the Supreme Court makes it final that what the government means by marriage is opposed to what the Church means.
Confusion about the meaning of marriage is already widespread. It’s the underlying issue in the crisis of marriage that last fall’s Synod of Bishops on marriage should have confronted and didn’t. But the synod’s omission is no reason for the Church to persist in a relationship with government that deepens the confusion.
A two-step procedure—come by the courthouse for a civil ceremony that satisfies the state, then come to church for a sacramental marriage—may sound cumbersome, but it’s an opportunity for catechesis on what marriage means. As secular America heads down the same-sex path, the Church now must go another, better way.
they approved of killing your babies....at least same sex couples can’t do that...
Exactly right. It probably won’t stop the state from punishing those faiths that disagree with its ever mutating version of marriage, but it would be a demonstration that what the state means by marriage and actual marriage has diverged. Probably should have happened long ago, no doubt part of the reason so many accept ‘gay marriage’ is because they have been conditioned to think the state defines marriage. To them it’s just a civil contract with strictures and benefits that can be broken and resumed between any parties the state currently accepts. And that’s it, that’s all marriage can ever be to the state in the modern era.
Freegards
This fine is both shockingly evil and blatantly unconstitutional on several grounds:
First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . . This demand that free Americans serve against their will in celebrating an offense against their Christian beliefs is clearly a prohibition on the free exercise of religion.
Eighth Amendment: Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed . . . A penalty of $150,000 over refusing to bake a cake in celebration of violating God's word is clearly an excessive fine. Anything more than the IRS business standard $0.56 a mile to the next closest bakery, or perhaps triple damages on that amount would be disproportionate and excessive, even if the federal government had the authority to demand that free people serve against their will.
Thirteenth Amendment: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction . . . To compel American citizens to serve against their will is to re-institute slavery. This is a level of evil that I did not expect even from Barack Hussein Obama, but as usual I underestimated the malevolence of him and of his supporters.
Fourteenth Amendment: No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States . . . The law under which these Americans are being persecuted abridges the above privileges of citizens of the United States and thus also violates the 14th Amendment.
Nothing says love and commitment like going to the window at the courthouse so a 300 lb civil servant can stamp your license and punctuate the moment with a crack of her gum.
Does the state do a marriage? Last time I checked the state is not a religious institution.
Indeed. We all should realize government bureaucracy tends to inspire life long respect for vital societal institutions. Or something.
Freegards
Are their any muslim bakeries that will make a homosexual cake?
Would they make a cake that says Jesus is Lord?
We need to push it to the limit. Break the system if necessary. We’re the ones funding this circus of clown judges. We need to make them unemployed.
for further research
Actually ... over here ... marriage licenses have been required since 1639 ... :-) ...
Marriage no longer means what it did 20 years ago so either get over it or just don’t get married as most seem to do these days...
We’ll agree to disagree, I guess...
There are loop holes only if someone wants there to be loop holes...
Unfortunately, the State has taken charge when they charge for a marriage license. It now is the State that controls marriage - or at least it was until the Federal Government took over. Now, it is a right...geez, how our rights have advanced! How can they say that this is a human right! Rights come from the Constitution which recognizes that these rights are NOT granted by man so how does this actually work?
Well, try securing some of these through some contract you draw up, but are not legally married by state recognition ... :-) ...
Rights and responsibilities of marriages in the United State
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_and_responsibilities_of_marriages_in_the_United_States
Rights and benefits
Right to benefits while married:
- Employment assistance and transitional services for spouses of members being separated from military service; continued commissary privileges
- Per diem payment to spouse for federal civil service employees when relocating
- Indian Health Service care for spouses of Native Americans (in some circumstances)
- Sponsor husband/wife for immigration benefits
Larger benefits under some programs if married, including:
- Veteran’s disability
- Supplemental Security Income
- Disability payments for federal employees
- Medicaid
- Property tax exemption for homes of totally disabled veterans
- Income tax deductions, credits, rates exemption, and estimates
- Wages of an employee working for one’s spouse are exempt from federal unemployment tax
Joint and family-related rights:
- Joint filing of bankruptcy permitted
- Joint parenting rights, such as access to children’s school records
- Family visitation rights for the spouse and non-biological children, such as to visit a spouse in a hospital or prison
- Next-of-kin status for emergency medical decisions or filing wrongful death claims
- Custodial rights to children, shared property, child support, and alimony after divorce
- Domestic violence intervention
- Access to “family only” services, such as reduced rate memberships to clubs & organizations or residency in certain neighborhoods
- Preferential hiring for spouses of veterans in government jobs
- Tax-free transfer of property between spouses (including on death) and exemption from “due-on-sale” clauses.
- Special consideration to spouses of citizens and resident aliens
-Threats against spouses of various federal employees is a federal crime
-Right to continue living on land purchased from spouse by National Park - - Service when easement granted to spouse
- Court notice of probate proceedings
- Domestic violence protection orders
- Existing homestead lease continuation of rights
- Regulation of condominium sales to owner-occupants exemption
- Funeral and bereavement leave
- Joint adoption and foster care
- Joint tax filing
- Insurance licenses, coverage, eligibility, and benefits organization of mutual benefits society
- Legal status with stepchildren
- Making spousal medical decisions
- Spousal non-resident tuition deferential waiver
- Permission to make funeral arrangements for a deceased spouse, including burial or cremation
- Right of survivorship of custodial trust
- Right to change surname upon marriage
- Right to enter into prenuptial agreement
- Right to inheritance of property
- Spousal privilege in court cases (the marital confidences privilege and the spousal testimonial privilege)
- For those divorced or widowed, the right to many of ex- or late spouse’s benefits, including:
- Social Security pension
- Veteran’s pensions, indemnity compensation for service-connected deaths, medical care, and nursing home care, right to burial in veterans’ cemeteries, educational assistance, and housing
- survivor benefits for federal employees
- Survivor benefits for spouses of longshoremen, harbor workers, railroad workers
- Additional benefits to spouses of coal miners who die of black lung disease
- $100,000 to spouse of any public safety officer killed in the line of duty
- Continuation of employer-sponsored health benefits
- Renewal and termination rights to spouse’s copyrights on death of spouse
- Continued water rights of spouse in some circumstances
- Payment of wages and workers compensation benefits after worker death
- Making, revoking, and objecting to post-mortem anatomical gifts
See the rest of it at link ...
What to do? It’s already done.
Maybe buy some Domains at Godaddy.
IncestuousMarriage.com and PolygamousMarriage.com.
Once the Dam breaks, everyone drowns.
The Church indeed should disengage herself from any government agency role, and it is best to do so preemptively, not because the Supreme Court is about to issue another illegitimate decree, but because many states already did. In state where gay "marriage" is "legal" the Church already is cooperating with evil by producing even a subset of marriage licenses that the Church considers licit. In a state where the gay "marriage" is still not on the books, it may become so due to one or another legal maneuver that would have nothing to do with the natural law.
So whether a state is still holding on, or has fallen, the legislative environment is not of the kind that the Church can operate in.
The Church should marry the people who can marry, and give them her own declaration of marriage completely disconnected from any government sanction.
Churches have bylaws. Those bylaws need to be changed such that the word ‘marriage’ is removed and the words ‘Ceremonies of Holy Matrimony’ are inserted.
The word ‘marriage’ is being redefined because the church/public/society has given control of marriage to the state. You need a LICENSE to get married? Really?
But Holy Matrimony is not open to redefinition. Holy links to Biblical scripture, NOT open to redefinition.
Churches that stay in the ‘marriage’ business WILL be forced to perform ‘same-sex marriages’.
Two steps come to mind. First, press for strong legal protections for individuals and institutions conscientiously unable to cooperate with a legal regime that requires sweeping concessions to the LGBT agenda. Second, give serious thought to the possibility that the Church should quit serving as the government’s agent in legitimating marriages.***
There is one more alternative: Go to jail! Let the whole world see what is becoming ovious: The U.S. is descending into tyranny!
***Iron-clad legal protection against state coercion to fall in line with gay marriage is desperately needed for individuals like the Kleins and institutions like the Catholic Church.***
Notice to sleeping Americans: The will of the people no longer has any standing in the courts of the governing power!
THIS worked before...
Genesis 19:15
And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.
Oh; about the same thing we did when it became LEGAL to kill future American Citizens.
Cry, wail, gnash our teeth and then ask, "What's for dinner."
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