Will Traditional Marriage Survive Michigan’s Gay-Marriage Ban Federal Trial?
On Tuesday, Michigan become one of several states where the rights of the voters of the state are being challenged by gay activists who want to overturn a near decade old ban on same-sex marriage, according to WXYZ-TV. The central question in this marital rights war is based upon a demand that courts go along with President Obama’s fierce defense of gay marriage and his refusal to uphold the Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
Since Barack Obama’s abandonment of the bipartisan passage of the federal law, state and federal courts have followed Obama’s lead in the dismantling of state passed gay-marriage ban voter-backed acts. In fact, the two Detroit-area nurses that are currently challenging the Michigan ban are now expanding the claim from simple adoption issues to including same-sex marriage at the request of the federal judge reported WXYZ-TV.
Whether or not U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman, who insisted upon a trial on the marriage ban, will be joining the states of Virginia, Utah and Oklahoma where other federal courts have struck down bans on gay marriage remains to be seen. What is crystal clear is that federal judges have been using language similar to the president’s protestations he used in deciding to ignore his constitutional obligation to enforce the laws of the United States.
The sovereign rights of a state under the 10th Amendment to set and decide marital rights did not gain headway until Obama decided to step aside from enforcement of DOMA. Now gay nurses April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse who filed the federal suit are claiming that the state ban, which was passed by an overwhelming 39 percent of the voters in 2004, infringed upon their right to be treated the same as traditional married couples.
The alleged violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause, which forbids states from treating people differently under the law, is more than questionable. What the gay couples in Michigan, Virginia, Utah and Oklahoma are attempting to do, with the guidance of the White House and activist federal judges, is to nullify the right of the people in those states to determine what a church or religious sanctioned marriage is.
In effect, gay couples are demanding that religious organizations tell God what God meant when the Bible speaks against same-sex relationships. In a strange way, the Detroit area couple want to force the federal court to build a religious bridge between church and state and then tell religion what it should and should not condone. Obama and the courts want to order the word of God to conform to the state and not have the state conform to the word of God as was determined by the founders of the nation.
The state attorney general’s office is not taking this federal lawsuit lightly. The attorney general’s office stated, “Their attempt to circumvent the legislative process and disrupt the will of the people of the state of Michigan must be rejected,” according to WXYZ-TV.
Religious leaders are also joining in the fight to preserve Michigan’s same-sex marriage ban and even held a rally which was attended by pastors from 30 congregations. The pastors demanded that the gay-marriage ban stay in place and proclaimed, “The fight is on. Don’t tell me I can go to the polls and then the next day tell me I don’t know what I’m doing,” insisted Rev. Roland Caldwell of Burnette Inspirational Ministries in Detroit, reported WXYZ-TV.
The religious leaders have it right. The fight to defend the very core of traditional marriage is not just based upon whether gay couples are feeling disenchanted about their relationships’ not being sanctioned by the state. The real issue is whether gay couples can force the hand of the state to change God’s will as written in the Bible to reflect their non-religious unsanctioned practices. God’s will, shall be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Image: Courtesy of: http://cronkitenewsonline.com/2013/06/activists-already-gathering-at-supreme-court-for-same-sex-marriage-rulings/