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Showing posts from March, 2013

I’m gay, and I oppose gay marriage

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March 27, 2013 ( thePublicDiscourse.com ) - In our sometimes misguided efforts to expand our freedom, selfish adults have systematically dismantled that which is most precious to children as they grow and develop. That’s why I am now  speaking out against same-sex marriage . By the way,  I am gay . A few days ago I testified against pending same-sex marriage legislation in Minnesota ’s Senate Judiciary and House Civil Law Committees. The atmosphere at these events (I’ve also testified elsewhere) seems tinged with unreality—almost a carnival-like surrealism. Natural law, tradition, religion, intellectual curiosity, and free inquiry no longer play a role in deliberations. Same-sex marriage legislation is defended solely on grounds of moral relativism and emotions. Pure sophistry is pitted against reason. Reason is losing. Here’s the problem: The national discussion of same-sex marriage treats the issue like a game of checkers , where opponents can quickly ga...

Supreme Court unlikely to redefine ‘marriage,’ court-watchers say

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"Who gave America the right to define marriage" God. Observers of the Supreme Court believe the nine justices will not impose a legally binding redefinition of marriage on all 50 states, because they expressed uncertainty about the effects same-sex “marriage” has on children and society. However, California's Proposition 8 , the state constitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman, may still be struck down. The High Court heard oral arguments yesterday into the constitutionality of Proposition 8 as thousands gathered outside on both sides of the issue. Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage has said  more than 10,000   Americans attended the  first-ever March for Marriage . The oral arguments themselves were filled to capacity, withe scalpers reselling the free tickets for up to  $6,000 apiece. Redefining marriage “may turn out to be a good thing; it may turn out not to be a good thing,” said Ju...

DOMA comes under fire at Supreme Court

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WASHINGTON, D.C. , March 27, 2013 ( LifeSiteNews.com ) – The legislative impact of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) came under heavy fire during oral arguments before the Supreme Court today, with enough justices questioning its effect to signal it may be struck down on states' rights grounds. Meanwhile, the court's conservative wing wondered if the “new regime” had instituted a “new world” of jurisprudence, slamming what is regarded as the Obama administration's hypocritical stance on the law. “I'm certainly concerned when you have potentially five justices question the federal Defense of Marriage Act ,” Mat Staver of  Liberty Counsel  told  OneNewsNow.com . “If for some reason the court had five justices vote to strike down Proposition 8 or the federal Defense of Marriage Act under some concoction that it was prohibited by the Constitution, that would have catastrophic effect.” Such a decision, he warned, would put the court “on a direct collision cou...

Sinful homosexual marriage and God's response

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If we have placed our trust in the God who does not change, we need not fear shifts in culture or law. In the beginning, God ordained marriage to be a lifelong, loving covenant between one man and one woman. We need to tell this truth with conviction, regardless of politics. If we are secure in God's love, people who reject what we believe pose no real threat to us. We are set free to love those who oppose us and to listen to their stories. It should be Christian business as usual. Telling the truth is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. Pastors must ask God for the wisdom to respond truthfully to gay marriage in general and compassionately to gay couples in particular. Some people need to hear right up front that homosexual behavior is sinful . Others need to hear that no sin is too big for God to forgive. Still others need the assurance that Father God wants only the best for his children before sin is ever mentioned. We must choose to love the ones God puts in our path and tru...

Homosexuality is plain awful

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U.S. Supreme Court building. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Should the Supreme Court discard the age-old understanding of marriage , the church will face challenges unlike any it has encountered. And yet the calling of pastors and their churches on this issue will remain largely the same as it is now. The biblical ideal of self-sacrificing, lifelong, heterosexual marriage is already countercultural. We must still uphold and celebrate God 's wise and magnificent design in this unique, complementary, and irreplaceable relationship between a man and a woman. We must teach coming generations of its benefits and beauty. And, above all, we must model it well. It is vital that we frame marriage as an example of God's common grace , given for the benefit of all humanity, transcending even fundamental faith differences. We must speak about the damage to our culture of departing from this blueprint—not because "we want our way," but because people inevitably suffer when God...

Homosexual marriage just divides countries

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Two groups, split down the middle by barriers and police, sang and prayed late into the night as NZ 's Parliament resumed its fierce debate on legalising same-sex marriage. omosexual marriage is just another step forward not of sin but lust, sin and fornication of the worst kind. Homosexual marriage divides communities. A large prayer vigil was held on Parliament grounds yesterday to "give politicians second thoughts" about supporting the bill at the committee stage. MPs voted to progress the bill without changes by a vote of 77 votes to 43. Led by Catholic Archbishop John Dew, the group held placards which said "Kids Need a Mum and Dad" and prayed for the sacred institution of marriage to be "protected and celebrated". They sang Amazing Grace and the New Zealand national anthem. On the other side of the lawn, supporters of a law change sang " What the world needs now is love , sweet love", and unfurled a massive rainbow-coloured flag t...

Same-sex ‘marriage’ and the abyss of nihilism

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March 26, 2013 ( thePublicDiscourse ) - What would the triumph of same-sex marriage mean for American civilization? Americans disagree on this question. Liberals think of it merely as an incremental step toward justice understood as equality. For them, homosexuals have been unjustly excluded from marriage, and now they no longer will be. Nothing more momentous is involved. Conservatives, on the other hand, think of same-sex marriage not as an extension of marriage but as a radical redefinition of it. To tamper with the very definition of a fundamental social institution like marriage, they warn, is to invite all manner of threatening consequences. The conservatives are closer to the truth than the liberals on this question, but their foreboding does not go far enough. To embrace same-sex marriage is to plunge headlong into the abyss of nihilism. It is to step into a realm in which there are no longer any solid or reliable public standards of judgment as to what is right and w...

Marriage in the dock - the Supreme Court considers same-sex ‘marriage’

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March 26, 2013 ( AlbertMohler.com ) - The next two days are destined to stand among the most significant days in our nation’s constitutional history, but the issues at stake reach far beyond the U.S. Constitution . Nothing less than marriage is in the dock, with the nation’s highest court set to consider two cases that deal with the question of the legalization of same-sex marriage . The first time the issue of same-sex marriage came before the Court, back in 1972, the Court dismissed the question succinctly: “The appeal is dismissed for want of a substantial federal question.” But now the Supreme Court is faced with two cases that demand a more substantial response. One case deals with a challenge to the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act , and the other addresses Proposition 8 , the amendment to the California constitution defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Both cases are significant. Together they represent a monumental set of...