Mike Reed wrote:dblagent007 wrote:That's the point. The church is using the democratic process. The judiciary just hands down edicts invented out of the members own policy choices. This process short circuits the democratic one.
If the homosexual lobby wins at the voting booth, then so be it. The rub is when a few robed masters rule by judicial fiat (although even the judges can't stray too far from the mainstream, which is why gays didn't receive the right to marry back in the 40s).
So then, while we are at it, lets
also overturn the 1967 Judicial ruling (Loving v. Virginia), which ended all marriage race-based legal restrictions in the United States. Judges "imposed" this ruling on our country too. Besides... when "God" first defined marriage, he didn't include interracial unions, did he? And have you read what your "prophets" have said about interracial marriage?
Ah, yes, I must think all judicial decisions are an unwarranted exercise of raw judicial power. Uh, no. However, the vast majority of the controversial ones are (e.g., Roe, cannot execute rapists, Lawrence, etc.).
The 14th amendment was ratified with race based legal discrimination in mind. In fact, the court distinguished its action in Loving with other cases that upheld discrimination because they were not race based.
The problem here is trying to equate race based restrictions on marriage with sexual orientation based restrictions on marriage. In the former case, the state has no good reason to do so. In the latter, there are good reasons to restrict it to one man and one woman (e.g., because it takes a man and a woman to produce children, etc.). Even if you disagree with the state's reason, it is not so far fetched as to merit being overturned wholesale by the judiciary.
At some point, the state must be allowed to define marriage. If sexual orientation is not a valid restriction on marriage, then how can other restrictions such as quantity (polygamy anyone?), relatedness (i.e., adult incest), and potentially even age and species restrictions, be valid? If the next study that comes out says that 9 year olds in sexual relationships are well adjusted, the courts won't be far behind saying that the 9 year old has the RIGHT to get married.
Most laws have valid restrictions associated with them. Marriage is no different. If the homosexual lobby wants to change the restrictions, they should call their legislators.