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Real Answers™
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Copyright: © 2004 Donald E. Lindman
635 words

ACTIVIST JUDGES MAKE FEDERAL MARRIAGE AMENDMENT NECESSARY

By: Don Lindman

It’s time to take seriously President Bush’s proposed Marriage Amendment to the Constitution.

The reason? Because polls show that Americans overwhelmingly support the idea that marriage is a union between one man and one woman. We are in serious danger of seeing this basic foundation of our society destroyed, and once it is gone we will not get it back. If we don’t do something now, we could lose it forever.

I know that sounds more serious than most of my readers have regarded it. I know I’m in danger of being seen as a Chicken Little, running around crying, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!”

But consider this: ceremonies “marrying” homosexual couples have already taken place in the state of Vermont, in Multnomah County in Oregon, and in the cities of San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, and New Paltz (NY).

A Massachusetts judge has ordered that state to recognize homosexual marriages beginning May 17. A Circuit Court Judge in Oregon has directed that state’s legislature to recognize the over 3000 marriage licenses issued to homosexual couples in that state and to pass legislation legalizing such unions.

Many of those officiating in these ceremonies, as well as those being “married,” acknowledge that their union has no legal standing…yet. But eventually (and possibly on May 17) a state will recognize homosexual “marriage” as legal, either by legislative action or judicial decision. When that happens, all other states are required by law to recognize those “marriages” as being legal and valid.

A number of states have passed defense of marriage legislation, declaring that marriage is the legal wedding of a man and a woman and that alone. But those laws will be challenged all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and who knows what kind of decision the Court will deliver. As long as all states are required to recognize marriages valid in another state, this scenario is a very real possibility.

Opponents of the Marriage Amendment say that amending the Constitution is much too important an action to be trivialized in this way; it would be like trying to kill a fly with a nuclear missile. But marriage and family are cornerstones of our social fabric. We used the Constitutional amendment process to grant voting rights to women and freedom to slaves; isn’t the very makeup of marriage at least that important?

Marriage already takes many varied forms in our society, the opponents say.

That’s true. People marry and divorce two, three, four, and more times. Many of our younger adults simply live together without being officially married.

We have a legal concept of “common law marriage” which covers this, but I hardly ever hear of the term being used any more. We just ignore marriage. We’ve even tried polygamy, but no state currently recognizes that relationship.

Marriage may already be in trouble, but that’s no reason to endanger it even further. If it is a foundation of our society, we need to be strengthening it instead of knocking more of the props out from under it.

Marriage has taken many forms in human society through the millennia, but I know of no human society or any major religion that hasn’t defined marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman. Homosexuality has been a reality in human society from the very beginning, but homosexual marriage has not.

The first couple, says the Bible, was created “male and female.” And God pronounced that “good.” In referring to marriage, the Bible also says that “a woman shall leave her family and be joined to her husband.” It never recognizes same sex unions.

Marriage is between a man and a woman. It’s been that way from the beginning. In religious terms, God made it that way. And we ought not mess around with God’s design.

"Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate. To contact the author or The Amy Foundation, write or E-mail to: P. O. Box 16091, Lansing, MI 48901-6091; amyfoundtn@aol.com

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