Summary
The Supreme Court of the United States’ decisions yesterday to overturn a key provision of DOMA and to effectively kill Proposition 8 in California are profoundly disappointing to everyone who believes in marriage as only between one man and one woman, who seeks to live by Biblical teachings, and who respects our Constitutional principles and form of government.
Why It Matters
God created man and woman as partners in a sacred covenant between each other and with Him. Therefore, these Court decisions to recognize and legitimate same-sex “marriage” desecrate God’s design and defy the very essence of biology and of sociology.
It is not physically possible for a man to “marry” a man, or a woman to “marry” a woman for the purposes of procreation and parenting that God intended and on which we all depend for stability and prosperity. To undermine this venerable institution of Holy Matrimony as these decisions have done is to further weaken the very foundations of our culture and of our nation.
How These Decisions Violate Constitutional Principles
The Founding Fathers established three branches of government with distinct responsibilities and also a system of checks and balances to prevent an undue accumulation of power by any of them. Sadly, the Court has violated that system with these two decisions.
On DOMA: Congress acted within its authority to pass the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 with overwhelming bipartisan support. Yesterday, however, in an arrogant overreach of its authority, the Supreme Court usurped the role of Congress by declaring DOMA unconstitutional for not allowing federal benefits for same-sex couples in states that recognize such “marriages”. .
• President Obama and AG Holder had encouraged this disregard for the Constitution and defiance of Congress by earlier refusing to defend DOMA as the law of the land which they were sworn to defend.
On Proposition 8: This decision does perhaps even greater damage to our system of government than the decision on DOMA. In Prop 8, the Court – as well as the Governor and the Attorney General of California — refused to protect the people of California who had voted not once but twice, in 2000 and 2008, to define marriage as between only one man and one woman. As a result, same-sex “marriage” will be forced on California against the expressed will of the people – an egregious abuse of governmental power.
The Impact: A Slippery Slope
On Marriage: With these two decisions now in hand, radical gay-rights activists will continue to press the Court for a decision that will require all states to approve same-sex “marriages”, just as it did so infamously in 1973 to legalize abortion. Appealing to a pliant Court rather than an unwilling Congress, they are also likely to press for recognition of other forms of “marriage”, including bigamy, polygamy, polyamory, and other extra-marital forms of sexuality.
On Liberty: These decisions also create a much more challenging environment for those who oppose same-sex “marriage”. They include pastors who refuse to perform same-sex marriages or to allow them in their churches; sectarian schools that refuse to hire same-sex marriage partners; businesses like Chick-fil-A who take a stand for traditional marriage; and workers who will be harassed, intimidated, and even dismissed for expressing their deeply held beliefs.
On States Rights: Finally, these decisions seriously jeopardize the actions that 38 states have taken, including Virginia in 2006, to define marriage as only between one man and one woman, either by Constitutional amendments or by statute.
Action Alert
There are several things we can and must do to defend marriage in America.
First, we must honor and uphold it in our own homes. Second, we can encourage our pastors and priests to call the church to lead out in this battle for Good over Evil.
Finally, elections matter, so we must identify and elect Godly leaders in November who will stand up, speak out, and fight for these core values in Virginia.
Stay tuned, because our choices are clear, and “We won’t give up, we won’t give in, and we won’t quit until we win!”
Dean Welty (right) serves on the Board of Directors for the Virginia Christian Alliance and is Director of the Valley Family Forum, a network of families in the Shenandoah Valley that helps build Faith, Family, and Freedom in the culture and in the public square. He also hosts a weekly television program entitled “Valley Faith in Action“.
Valley Faith in Action airs at 8:00 p.m. on Friday and at 8:30 p.m. Sunday on WAZT-TV, which is Comcast Cable Channel 13 in the Harrisonburg area. It will air again at Wednesday midnight. You can also access it and other recent programs by clicking HERE.
