SCOTUS and Marriage: The Fallout

I have already written on the fateful decision of the US Supreme Court to redefine marriage and show its utter contempt for the majority of Americans who know that marriage is always about a one man, one woman relationship. As I argued there, this is as momentous as the 1973 abortion decision, and is just as evil: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2015/06/27/scotus-declares-war-on-marriage-and-family/

The fallout of course continues with plenty of commentary from all sides of the debate. This is one of the most far-reaching and radical decisions ever made by SCOTUS, and we will feel the negative after-effects for decades to come. The only good news is four of the judges had the sense, and moral and mental clarity, to strongly denounce the decision of the other five.

For example, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote: “They know that an institution as old as government itself, and accepted by every nation in history until 15 years ago, cannot possibly be supported by anything other than ignorance or bigotry. And they are willing to say that any citizen who does not agree with that, who adheres to what was, until 15 years ago, the unanimous judgment of all generations and all societies, stands against the Constitution.”

And Justice Samuel Alito said, “The decision will also have other important consequences. It will be used to vilify Americans who are unwilling to assent to the new orthodoxy. In the course of its opinion, the majority compares traditional marriage laws to laws that denied equal treatment for African-Americans and women. …Today’s decision shows that decades of attempts to restrain this Court’s abuse of its authority have failed.”

scotus 11Let me also offer more commentary from various individuals and organisations:

Ted Cruz: Today is some of the darkest 24 hours in our nation’s history. Today this radical decision purporting to down the marriage laws of every state; it has no connection to the United States Constitution. They are simply making it up. It is lawless, and in doing so, they have undermined the fundamental legitimacy of the United States Supreme Court.

Gov. Bobby Jindal: The Supreme Court decision today conveniently and not surprisingly follows public opinion polls, and tramples on states’ rights that were once protected by the 10th Amendment of the Constitution. Marriage between a man and a woman was established by God, and no earthly court can alter that.
This decision will pave the way for an all out assault against the religious freedom rights of Christians who disagree with this decision. This ruling must not be used as pretext by Washington to erode our right to religious liberty.
The government should not force those who have sincerely held religious beliefs about marriage to participate in these ceremonies. That would be a clear violation of America’s long held commitment to religious liberty as protected in the First Amendment. I will never stop fighting for religious liberty and I hope our leaders in D.C. join me.

Ryan T. Anderson: Today is a significant setback for all Americans who believe in the Constitution, the rule of law, democratic self-government, or marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The Court got it wrong: It should not have mandated all 50 states to redefine marriage. This is judicial activism. Nothing in the Constitution requires the redefinition of marriage, and the Court imposed its judgment about a policy matter that should have been decided by the American people and their elected representatives. The Court got marriage and the Constitution wrong today, just as they got abortion and the Constitution wrong 42 years ago with Roe v. Wade. Five unelected judges do not have the power to change the truth about marriage or the truth about the Constitution.

Al Mohler: The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the land, and its decisions cannot be appealed to a higher court of law. But the Supreme Court, like every human institution and individual, will eventually face two higher courts. The first is the court of history, which will render a judgment that I believe will embarrass this court and reveal its dangerous trajectory. The precedents and arguments set forth in this decision cannot be limited to the right of same-sex couples to marry. If individual autonomy and equal protection mean that same-sex couples cannot be denied what is now defined as a fundamental right of marriage, then others will arrive to make the same argument. This Court will find itself in a trap of its own making, and one that will bring great harm to this nation and its families. The second court we all must face is the court of divine judgment. For centuries, marriage ceremonies in the English-speaking world have included the admonition that what God has put together, no human being — or human court — should tear asunder. That is exactly what the Supreme Court of the United States has now done.
The threat to religious liberty represented by this decision is clear, present, and inevitable….
In one sense, everything has changed. And yet, nothing has changed. The cultural and legal landscape has changed, as we believe this will lead to very real harms to our neighbors. But our Christian responsibility has not changed. We are charged to uphold marriage as the union of a man and a woman and to speak the truth in love. We are also commanded to uphold the truth about marriage in our own lives, in our own marriages, in our own families, and in our own churches.
We are called to be the people of the truth, even when the truth is not popular and even when the truth is denied by the culture around us. Christians have found themselves in this position before, and we will again. God’s truth has not changed. The Holy Scriptures have not changed. The gospel of Jesus Christ has not changed. The church’s mission has not changed. Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.

Robert Gagnon: As individuals, people of faith will be aggressively indoctrinated, fined, denied advancement, fired, intimidated, and subjected to ceaseless verbal abuse in public and private schools, at institutions of higher learning, at places of employment in public and private sectors, and throughout the main communication organs of the media and entertainment industry. Their institutions and businesses will be set on a collision course with the state: denied government funding, contracts, and loans; denied accreditation and tax-exempt status; and subjected to government harassment.
Contrary to what deceived and deceiving proponents of “gay marriage” have argued, homosexual relationships will not be tamed by marriage but rather will destroy it and render it meaningless. The institution of marriage will not so much conform homosexual activity to the Christian understanding of marriage (lifelong, monogamous, procreative, balancing the sexes) as be transformed over time to accommodate to virtually any type of adult-consensual union. It will eradicate the very basis in creation and nature for defining marriage as complementary of body and monogamous: a male-female foundation. Taking account of sexual differentiation at any level, even opposition to cross-dressing and “transgenderism” and sex-distinguished bathroom facilities, must now be treated as malicious.

Jennifer Roback Morse, The Ruth Institute: Today’s decision undermines the natural right of every child to know the identity of his or her own parents, and as far as possible, to be in a relationship with and to be raised by both his or her mother and father. No amount of legal mumbo-jumbo or cultural happy-talk can fully compensate for this fundamental structural injustice.
Forty-two years after Roe v. Wade, the majority of the country opposes abortion — the ultimate structural injustice to children. Future generations will come to their senses and realize the injustice that a genderless marriage institution inflicts on children. But when those people of the future overturn today’s ruling, not a single child born motherless or fatherless in a gender-neutral marriage will get his or her missing parent back. The structural injustice to children will be deep and permanent. The thin disguise of “marriage equality” will not fool anyone. Nor will it atone for the wrong done this day.

Brian S. Brown, The National Organization for Marriage: Though expected, today’s decision is completely illegitimate. We reject it and so will the American people. It represents nothing but judicial activism, legislating from the bench, with a bare majority of the Justices on the Supreme Court exercising raw political power to impose their own preferences on marriage when they have no constitutional authority to do so. It is a lawless ruling that contravenes the decisions of over 50 million voters and their elected representatives. It is a decision that is reminiscent of other illegitimate Court rulings such as Dred Scott and Roe v Wade and will further plunge the Supreme Court into public disrepute.
Make no mistake about it: The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) and countless millions of Americans do not accept this ruling. Instead, we will work at every turn to reverse it.
The US Supreme Court does not have the authority to redefine something it did not create. Marriage was created long before the United States and our constitution came into existence. Our constitution says nothing about marriage. The majority who issued today’s ruling have simply made it up out of thin air with no constitutional authority.
In his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Dr. Martin Luther King discussed the moral importance of disobeying unjust laws, which we submit applies equally to unjust Supreme Court decisions. Dr. King evoked the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas that an unjust law or decision is one that is “a human law that is not rooted in eternal law or natural law.”
Today’s decision of the Supreme Court lacks both constitutional and moral authority. There is no eternal or natural law that allows for marriage to be redefined.

David van Gend, The Australian Marriage Forum: The US Supreme Court has ushered in a new era of civil discord with its politically activist and morally reckless ruling on homosexual ‘marriage’. We must not let that happen here. The moral dementia of the West is evident when the honourable name of marriage is given to a relationship that can only be consummated by an indecent act.
This is the third historic act of social self-mutilation by the US Supreme Court, the most recent being the Roe-v Wade decision in 1973 that found a constitutional right for adults to kill their babies in the womb. Further back, five judges in 1857 imposed the racist abomination of the Dred Scott decision on all the states of the Union.
Just as the five judges in 1857 were so degenerate as to enshrine slavery in the Constitution, so five judges today enshrine sodomy in the Constitution. The fallout for the moral culture of the US and for the education of children is incalculable.
The court decision stands against the clearly-stated will of the people, where a majority of 61% to 39% (51.5 million to 33 million) have voted in ballots in 35 states to keep marriage a man-woman thing. The Supreme Court’s slavery decision was eventually repented of and reversed, just as the homosexual ‘marriage’ decision will have to be repented of and reversed – but after how much social damage is done?

The social science evidence on why marriage matters, why children do best in a heterosexual marriage household, and why the homosexual lifestyle is a high-risk and dangerous lifestyle, has all been made perfectly clear for decades now. Yet all that has been dumped in favour of allowing a tiny activist lobby group to destroy marriage and family, all in the name of their radical social engineering ideology.

This is an incredibly sad day for America and the rest of the world. The pressure will now further mount for countries like Australia to follow suit. Well I for one will never capitulate. I will never surrender. The wellbeing of children, of marriage, of family, and of society are all too important to give up without a fight.

And the spiritual implications are overwhelming. “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” At the highest levels in America, sin has been embraced and righteousness has been eschewed. To top off this reprehensible decision, the White House was actually bathed in homosexual rainbow colours. God have mercy on America.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/ted-cruz-today-is-some-of-the-darkest-24-hours-in-our-nations-history/
http://news.sbts.edu/2015/06/26/mohler-responds-supreme-courts-same-sex-marriage-decision/
http://www.robgagnon.net/homosexSCOTUSgaymarriage.htm
https://stream.org/christian-leaders-respond-to-supreme-court-decision-same-sex-marriage/
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/420397/gay-marriage-decision-conservative-response-ryan-t-anderson
http://www.ruthinstitute.org/ruth-speaks-out/ruth-institute-statement-on-the-us-supreme-court-ruling-on-obergefell-v-hodges
http://www.nomblog.com/40488/
http://australianmarriage.org/the-insanity-of-the-us-supreme-court/

[2050 words]

 

13 Replies to “SCOTUS and Marriage: The Fallout”

  1. Al Mohler makes reference to two judgments to come over this disastrous ruling, From History, and from God Almighty.

    I believe there is a third and more immediate!

    It is clear SCOTUS have trampled over the US constitution and the people’s inalienable rights. It is now up to the 50 million Americans, and I believe the figure to be much higher, to make themselves heard in no uncertain terms even if it means camping out at the Supreme Courts and out on Capital Hill. They need to be serious enough to bring the country to a standstill.

    If nothing seriously is done by the people not then America will deserve what is coming! Leadership is needed, strategy is needed and decisive action is needed in the very near future.

  2. Uncompromising leaders are needed – voted in by people who can bring themselves to vote on something more important than what benefit the government can do for their back pocket.
    Even if the people of america voted on it, should the outcome be like that of the recent Irish referendum it would still not make it right. Which human being has ever been given the power to change the laws of mathematics? Knowledge of the Bible is not a prerequisite for the knowledge that some things are immutable, unaffected by human opinion or desire. Failure to observe these immutable laws is bound to bring disaster on humanity everywhere, those who bring the changes to pass and especially those who are at their power.
    Many blessings
    Ursula Bennett

  3. Although this is truly a dark day, Judaeo/Christianity has been in existence long before any modern borders, govts, people existed, we will weather this, just as we have weathered other dark days.

    Already Govts are working out plans to short circuit this abomination by these 5 wicked persons.

    With our help, God will deal judgement upon the unrighteous, and help us to rebuild society, until the next group of unrighteous wicked ones tries something similar.

    Eventually, Jesus himself is going to return, and their knees will bend, one way or the other.

  4. I saw a documentary the other day about animal intelligence where two monkeys had to perform a task and were then rewarded with a piece of cucumber. At one point the experimenter started to give one monkey a grape instead of the cucumber and the other monkey, enraged after seeing what the first monkey had received (grapes being better than cucumber), threw away his cucumber, banged on the ground and in obvious temper, demanded the same as the first. The experiment was then explained as showing that monkeys had a concept of fairness.

    Now, of course, the wronged monkey had no idea of what was going to happen next or what the experiment was about. He may have been the one to next receive the grape or the experiment could have been to see how much the monkeys trusted the experimenter (obviously not at all) and the one who trusted could have been going to receive a whole bunch of grapes. I wonder what would have happened if the wronged monkey had meekly received his cucumber and looked hurt and lovingly into the experimenters eyes. I bet he would have received a few grapes.

    I think it should be clear that the majority of the SCOTUS bench have exhibited a similar amount of intelligence to that of the monkey.

  5. I agree with Keith Lewis. I ask American Christians (who believe in God’s definition of marriage) – what will you do? What will history record you as doing in the wake of this decision? How will heaven see you respond? Who will listen to the tactics of heaven and lead? And who will follow?

  6. No way Jose can any moral living Person receive this abomination ruling of the Supreme Court as a perfect and just Ruling and should be under no Obligation to obey and accept. The only Law that righteous Men are obligated to obey are True and natural Laws of a living God.. Marriage was instituted by God in the Garden of Eden as being between one Man (Adam) and one Woman (Eve) not an Adam and Steve. Marriage in it’s natural State is between one Man and one Woman with the expressed aim of bearing offspring for the replinshment of the Earth and Population.

    I myself will never bow to any other God than our Heavenly Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. I will obey only God’s moral Laws no Man’s immoral Laws even if I had a Gun placed to my Head. God’s Laws are Perfect and Just and there is no greater State than Perfection and as Joshua said as He prepared to lead Israel into then Promised Land after 40 years wandering in the Wilderness, “choose thee this Day whom Ye shall Serve, but for Me and my Family we will serve the Lord God of Israel, and Him alone shall we Serve”.

    Leigh D Stebbins.

  7. Whatever needs to done to save Christendom, and that is how serious this SC decision is, it will need very serious prayer for strong leadership and wisdom.

    It occurred to me that Obama would be ready for a strong rebuff. In fact Tea Party supporters and the like, of all people, are on the top of his terror threat list.

    If there is to be a backlash and fight back it would need to be huge or no backlash at all. A protest of a couple of thousand could be dealt with easy by Home Land Security and would be seen as a weak response where as several million will itself be a safe environment and make the government take notice.

    Further thoughts, what are all those empty guarded facilities for that are dotted around the country. For a major backlash such as this? Why has he bolstered the Home Land Security to an enormous size and could a major backlash be an excuse for declaring Martial Law? Just things for Christians in the US to consider.

    I believe God blessed Egypt and brought upon the people the Spirit of prayer. This resulted in 33 million people protesting and outing the Muslim Brotherhood. Could the US have a time of prayer and repentance and ask God to bring His Spirit upon His church.

  8. We have always assumed in the West that the government definition of marriage is the same as the biblical meaning. It’s clear now that in the USA they are not the same thing. So I wonder if the church should stop acting as government agents in registering couples for the government. Perhaps the church should conduct its own marriage ceremonies and keep its own records but let each couple decied whether they want to register with the government or not. How long have governments been keeping track of marriages anyway?

  9. I do like how they are conflating this issue with the civil rights movement. But like the anti interracial marriage movement, they are inventing a modern thing, that is gay marriage, just like how there was no such thing as interracial marriage, since we are all part of the human race, there is no such thing as gay marriage because it has always been a heterosexual institution.

  10. In Germany such a separate system has existed for many years.
    Many blessings
    Ursula Bennett

  11. Even if you are not a Christian, Common Sense would indicate that this decision will lead to terrible outcomes. The world has gone completely mad.
    The so called Christians with the rainbow profile photos make me sad.

    One friend surprised me when he updated his profile this morning to say – “I want marriage equality right now. I want to be able to marry me mates wife (even if he is still married to her). I want to be able to marry objects such as my car or favourite lounge chair. Let’s not forget the family dog. I want to marry him as well. I want polygamy and polyandry. THAT is true marriage equality and I WANT IT NOW! Who’s with me?”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

%d bloggers like this: