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LEAVE THE CONSTITUTION ALONE Thu Aug 7, 7:21 PM ET By Cynthia Tucker This was as unnecessary as it was utterly predictable: Shoring up his appeal among ultraconservative constituents, President Bush ( - ) recently dismissed gay marriage, saying his administration is moving to "codify" a legal definition of marriage as restricted to a man and a woman. That prejudice has already been enshrined in law, in former Georgia congressman Bob Barr's odious Defense of Marriage Act. So what is the president talking about? A constitutional amendment? Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has endorsed an amendment banning same-sex unions, and a Colorado legislator has reintroduced a marriage amendment bill in the House. Let's hope this is just political blather for the campaign trail. The last thing the nation needs is for its religious conservatives to hijack the U.S. Constitution. Among the fundamental differences between the United States and Iran is the separation of church and state that allows people of different religious views to live together in peace. How is America to denounce the theocracy of the Taliban and Iran's mullahs, who dictate what citizens wear, read and watch, if we allow our own mullahs to dictate our civil code? No matter how you feel about the subject of gay marriage, you ought to be disturbed by the prospect of amending the Constitution to suit a particular theological point of view. There are some Christians who would be offended and whose religious views would be restricted by a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. As a member of the United Church of Christ, I would find my own religious views unfairly maligned by a constitutional prohibition against gay marriage. The UCC, which has struggled with issues of sexuality for decades, has gone further than many denominations in welcoming openly gay and lesbian church members and clergy. While the issue remains contentious inside the UCC, some individual pastors have performed marriage (or commitment) ceremonies for gay members. (The UCC has no governing hierarchy, leaving such matters to individual congregations.) By contrast, conservative denominations such as the Southern Baptist Convention are adamantly opposed to gay marriage. At its annual meeting in June, the convention passed a resolution not only denouncing same-sex marriage but also pledging to campaign against attempts to legalize them. What business does the Constitution have deciding that one church is right while the other is wrong? Where would that end? Should the Constitution also ban the ordination of women? Should it decree that all shops should close on the Sabbath and that the Sabbath be observed only on Sundays? Absolutely not. Nor is the Constitution going to order any church to accept gay marriage if that violates its doctrine. No priest or preacher ever has to marry a couple he objects to. Ministers currently make those distinctions. Priests frequently deny the sacrament of marriage to divorced Catholics, and conservative Protestant ministers sometimes refuse to marry couples who have lived together before marriage or who have already conceived a child. That's as it should be. The promise and the dilemma presented by the Bible both lie in its openness to myriad interpretations. The nation's founding document should not be used on behalf of any theological or sectarian view. Instead, it should defend the right of each person to interpret the Bible as he or she wishes. Or to ignore the Bible altogether. Countless agnostics and atheists marry without benefit of religious authority. Wiccans marry, as do Druids, Raelians, Rastafarians and Hare Krishnas. Why shouldn't gays be allowed to marry in civil ceremonies as well? Or in churches that welcome them? Granted, the nation is probably a generation away from general acceptance of that notion. The culture wars are heating up instead of cooling. Meanwhile, the nation need not be torn asunder by an inflammatory debate over the U.S. Constitution. Let the pope and the preachers, the bishops, the rabbis and the imams slug it out. Leave the Constitution alone. ---- Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It's no different. It is the same thing. It is happening all over again. It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-based media and the homosexuals who want to destroy the Christians. Wholesale abuse and discrimination and the worst bigotry directed toward any group in America today. More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in history. -- Pat Robertson _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
