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Proposition 8. Never heard of it? With all the other news that’s been so heavily on the minds of the American public these days (economic failure, gas prices suddenly being low again, multiple wars, Presidential Elections, World Series, football season, etc…) it’s not surprising if it’s gone undetected by your radar. But in California religious conservatives seem to have little else on their minds.
Prop 8 is an amendment to be voted on next month that would undo the California Supreme Court verdict that approved same sex marriages.
Conservative religious leaders from across the country are pouring time, talent and millions of dollars into the state in support of Proposition 8, which would ban same-sex marriage. They are hoping to reverse a California Supreme Court ruling in May that gave same-sex couples permission to marry, resulting in thousands of exultant same-sex weddings.
Similar marriage amendments are on the ballot next month in Arizona and Florida. But religious conservatives have cast the campaign in California as the decisive last stand, warning in stunningly apocalyptic terms of dire consequences to the entire nation if Proposition 8 does not pass.
California, they say, sets cultural trends for the rest of the country and even the world. If same-sex marriage is allowed to become entrenched there, they warn, there will be no going back.
“This vote on whether we stop the gay-marriage juggernaut in California is Armageddon,” said Charles W. Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries and an eminent evangelical voice, speaking to pastors in a video promoting Proposition 8. “We lose this, we are going to lose in a lot of other ways, including freedom of religion.”
The propaganda being spread by the pro-8 crowd includes statements that “churches that refuse to marry same-sex couples will be sued and lose their tax-exempt status. Ministers will be jailed if they preach against homosexuality. Parents will have no right to prevent their children from being taught in school about same-sex marriage”, none of which of course is true. Just as no such things occurred when people started living together before marriage, or when couples first started getting divorced, or when following those divorces people started remarrying (and then divorcing and remarrying any number of times after that) all things that could be argued to be detrimental to the “sanctity of marriage” all things that religious figures have been free to accept or belittle of their own accord, without government interference.
Just because same sex marriages are being permitted, doesn’t mean every church would have to do them- that would be against freedom of religion. There are plenty of churches that are willing to hold the ceremonies and recognise the marriages within the realm of their religious scope, and to deny them that right is also against freedom of religion. Or how about those who don’t do it up all churchy and just have a justice of the peace confirm the marriage? Religion isn’t even involved then.
There are even some who claim that this vote is more important than the Presidential Elections. Of course they are primarily of the gloom and doom “it’s the end of the world as we know it if we allow this to continue” set.
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian lobby based in Washington, said in an interview, “It’s more important than the presidential election.”
“We’ve picked bad presidents before, and we’ve survived as a nation,” said Mr. Perkins, who has made two trips to California in the last six weeks. “But we will not survive if we lose the institution of marriage.”
Sadly it’s not just Californians who are debating the issue. Nope, anti-gay activists are being imported from all over the globe to try to swing voters to their side.
(T)he “Yes on 8” campaign has brought over from Sweden a pastor named Ake Green, who a few years ago was sentenced to a month in prison under Sweden’s law banning hate speech, because he gave a sermon denouncing homosexuality. Mr. Green’s testimony was featured in a 90-minute “Yes on 8” satellite simulcast that was recently downlinked to 170 churches throughout the state.
“He is a symbol of what is ahead,” said the Rev. Jim Garlow, the senior pastor of Skyline Church in the San Diego area, a leading organizer of the “Yes” ranks.
Both sides recognize that this could be a dangerously close vote, and it’s entirely possible that Prop 8 could pass. I for one (and recognize that I really have little personal stake in this, being that I am a heterosexual male) hope that this doesn’t pass. To continue to deny the place of homosexuals in our country’s culture, and even further- to deny them the same basic civil rights that we all hold, to deny the ability for two loving consenting adults to have their relationship recognized both socially and legally is one of the more reprehensible trends that is sadly still prevailent in our society.
The evangelical windbags are right about one thing though, California is a trend setter in American Culture, and with that in mind I suppose now there are two events now in which I’ll be keeping an eye on the results to see where voters hearts and minds really rest.
Popularity: 3% [?]
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