In The Family: A Proclamation to the World it says,
“We, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.”
In June of 2015, the Supreme Court made a ruling that made
same sex marriages legal throughout the whole country. By doing so, they took
the law into their own hands. They didn’t just interpret the law, they MADE the
law. I’m pretty sure judges aren’t supposed to do that…even judges on the
Supreme Court of the United States of America. By making this decision, they
took the choice away from the states, who were working through the process
democratically, like they are supposed to do. Aren’t we governed by the voice
of the people? Not the voice of a 5 judge majority? Seriously, 5 out of 9
judges made this decision for the entire country!
Reading the opinion of the Supreme Court on this issue was
rough. It was long and convoluted; it was hard to follow. Through the first
part of it, I could follow some of Justice Kennedy’s ideas. I could even agree
with him. He talked about the importance of families for our society. He used
great personal stories to explain the “injustice” of denying these couples the
opportunity to marry. I’m not a hard hearted person, those stories did make me
feel bad for those couples. Life certainly isn’t fair sometimes. But, that doesn’t
give those judges the right to take away our ability to vote on these issues,
which most of the states had already done.
Justice Roberts in his dissent talked about how the court
had taken the choice away from the people. He said,
“…This Court is not a legislature. Whether same-sex marriage is a good idea should be of no concern to us. Under the Constitution, judges have power to say what the law is, not what it should be. The people who ratified the Constitution authorized courts to exercise “neither force nor will but merely judgment.” The Federalist No. 78, p. 465 (C. Rossiter ed. 1961) (A. Hamilton) (capitalization altered)…Today, however, the Court takes the extraordinary step of ordering every State to license and recognize same-sex marriage. Many people will rejoice at this decision, and I begrudge none their celebration. But for those who believe in a government of laws, not of men, the majority’s approach is deeply disheartening. Supporters of same-sex marriage have achieved considerable success persuading their fellow citizens—through the democratic process—to adopt their view. That ends today. Five lawyers have closed the debate and enacted their own vision of marriage as a matter of constitutional law. Stealing this issue from the people will for many cast a cloud over same-sex marriage, making a dramatic social change that much more difficult to accept.” (Obergefell v. Hodges, 2015)
It’s amazing to me that instead of letting the people have a
voice in how we want marriage defined, they threw out thousands of years of
“tradition” for a new definition that hasn’t even been around 100 years. Apparently
they know better than those citizens of this country that voted to uphold the
traditional definition of marriage.
I know there are people in same sex relationships who desire
to be married. They certainly have a right to feel that way, but just as they
don’t want to feel discriminated against, I don’t want to be looked down upon
because I believe marriage is between one man and one woman. Sadly, I know that
this is becoming a more unpopular stance by the day. We certainly are devolving
into a society that thinks everyone should be able to do what they want, when
they want to…unless you disagree with what they would like to do. Then you had
better just keep your opinion to yourself.
Those of us who still believe in the traditional definition
of marriage, the definition being one man and one woman, need to be vocal in
proclaiming our stance. It may be an unpopular stance in the opinion of some
people, but if it’s what you believe in, stand up and make your voice heard!
References
Obergefell c. Hodges. 576 U.S. (2015).
https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation?lang=eng
No comments:
Post a Comment