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Showing posts with label Maine Question 1. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maine Question 1. Show all posts

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Straw Man Question: By prohibiting Gay marriage aren't we violating the separation of church and state?

The Family Policy Institute of Washington has released a video entitled "By Prohibiting Gay Marriage Aren't We Violating the Separation of Church and State?"  and their Joseph Backholm answers the question:
No.


The phrase “separation of church and state” does not appear anywhere in the United States or Washington State Constitutions. Regardless, the fact that people of a particular religious faith share common ideas does not mean that those ideas are necessarily unconstitutional because they are religious.

To the contrary, our laws against stealing, killing, lying, perjury, incest, rape, battery, and destruction of property were all religious tenets before they were laws. No one wants to repeal the criminal code because its major themes were first recorded in the Bible.

The idea that a preference for heterosexual marriage is unconstitutional simply because it is consistent with a religious doctrine is legally and constitutionally unsupportable.

Our Founding Fathers wanted to avoid a situation where a religious organization wrote the law for the country. However, they did not intend to create a country in which citizens and elected officials were forbidden from reading, discussing, thinking about, or legislating ideas that happened to be religious in nature

The problem is that he is completely missing the point.  He is correct in stating that prohibiting marriage equality does not violate the separation of church and state.   Like Joseph indicated in the video, the concept of a eparation between church and state was to prevent religious organizations writing the laws of the country. 

More after the jump

Friday, November 20, 2009

When does Church turn into State?

UPDATED 11/20/2009: Jeremy's got the text of this "manifesto" up at Good As You.

 As a Christian, a political liberal, and a gay man, I often find myself dismayed and torn when leaders claiming to speak for one group I am part of say something negative about another group that I am part of. That is part of why the Manhattan Declaration is so disturbing. The full document is set to be released at noon today, but excerpts and commentary have been popping up around the blogosphere ahead of the release.

AP: Christian Leaders issue Call of Conscience
NY Times: Religious Leaders unite on Political Issues

The document is signed by multiple Catholic bishops; James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Anus Family; the president of the National Assoc. of Evangelicals; and various seminary leaders, pastors and professors. In it, the signers are stating their continued opposition to abortion, stem-cell research, same-sex marriage, and anti-discrimination statutes, among other issues. 

My take after the jump