Traditional Marriage weakened by SCOTUS ruling

English: Rally for Prop 8 in Fresno, Californi...

English: Rally for Prop 8 in Fresno, California Español: Manifestación por Prop 8 en Fresno, California (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’m disappointed that the Supreme Court partially ruled against traditional marriage in their decision today. Thankfully they didn’t make a wholesale ruling in favor of so-called same-sex marriage. They still allowed for states to define marriage for themselves.

As far as California’s Prop 8 is concerned, the Court dismissed the appeal. This seems somewhat ambiguous. Prop 8 was a majority vote for an amendment to the California state constitution in favor of traditional marriage between only one man and one woman. A federal judge declared the amendment unconstitutional. The governor refused to appeal this ruling essentially thumbing their noses at the majority popular vote. Conservative groups appealed the federal lower court ruling to the Supreme Court. This appeal was dismissed.

The basis for appealing the dismissal was lack of precedent. Apparently SCOTUS hasn’t before entertained appeals of state laws that were not being defended by the state itself.

So on one hand, SCOTUS has affirmed states to determine a definition of marriage as the state sees fit. On the other hand, the Court didn’t slap down a lower federal court for dictating to California what sort of definition of marriage would be considered constitutional… Ambivalence? I would say somewhat biased toward the redefinition of marriage side.

Hopefully this decision will galvanize further action to strengthen traditional marriage. One way to do this is to sign the Manhattan Declaration.

 

Tipping Points

Advertisement

ObamaCare vs. Freedom of Religion

English: The Department of Health and Human Se...

Image via Wikipedia

Our religious freedoms are under attack. Our first amendment right to freedom of religion is being undermined by ObamaCare. The Health and Human Services department will now require large organizations to supply their employees health insurance that provides contraception and abortifacient (morning after) drugs. At first the Catholic church was told that it would have one year to figure out how to implement this policy. In other words our Catholic brothers have one year to get comfortable with the idea of violating their consciences. Catholic leadership spoke up and explained that this was not an adequate solution. Next religious organizations were told that they would not have to pay for that part of insurance. Instead the government would pay for that part. This is a complete breakdown of our First Amendment rights. The Obama administration is trying to micromanage religious groups and rob people, particularly large groups of people, of their religious convictions. For more details on this fight click here.

This is another opportunity for us to break the Spiral of Silence and let our voices be heard. There are two ways we can help with this process and stand on the side of the righteous in this situation. First, join with me to ManhattanDeclaration.org and sign the petition against the implementation of this policy. Second, sign the Manhattan Declaration yourself to send a message to those in the government who are working to take away our freedoms. Third, contact your legislator and urge them to stand against this assault on freedom of conscience and religion.

“We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s.” — excerpt from the Manhattan Declaration.