Mormon Ecumenism On Both Sides of California Same-sex Marriage Debate

On March 4, the California Supreme Court will hear a challenge to state law that upholds traditional marriage between a man and a woman. The Church has joined with other churches in filing a friend of the court brief asking the court to uphold the current law. 

On one side are the Mormon church, the California Catholic Conference, the National Association of Evangelicals and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations. They describe marriage between a man and a woman as “the lifeblood of community, society and the state” and say any attempt by the courts to change that would create “deep tensions between civil and religious understandings of that institution.”

On the other side are the Unitarians, the United Church of Christ, the Union for Reform Judaism, the Soka Gakkai branch of Buddhism, and dissident groups of Mormons, Catholics and Muslims. Saying their faiths and a wide range of historical traditions honor same-sex unions, they argue that the current law puts the state’s stamp of approval on “the religious orthodoxy of some sects concerning who may marry.”

The brief on behalf of the Church and its allies was written by Kenneth Starr (of Clinton impeachment fame) and argues that, regardless of religion, traditional marriage is essential for a healthy society.

“We have seen at close range the enormous benefits that traditional male-female marriage imparts,” he wrote. “We have also witnessed the substantial adverse consequences for children that often flow from alternative household arrangements.”

The “inescapable truth,” Starr said, is that “children need their mothers and fathers, and that society needs mothers and fathers to raise their children.”

His clients’ argument is not based on their religious beliefs, he said, but on “historical and sociological facts about what marriage has always been across time and cultures,” and on the doctrine that courts must let the people and their representatives decide such fundamental questions.

The brief can be found at the court’s website here [PDF]. It’s nice to see that although there were 50 some briefs files, the Church was joined by like-minded Catholics, Evangelicals, and Jews.

Also, Evergreen International, an LDS-supportive group for dealing with same-sex attraction filed a separate brief with similar organizations affiliated with other denominations [PDF]. 

Opponents of the California law claim that same-sex marriage has been around much longer than believed and that the law violates religious freedom.  The brief for religious organizations joined in opposing the law can be found here [PDF].  Despite the SF Chronicle’s highlighting that “dissident groups of Mormons” signed on to the opposing brief, I only recognized one Mormon-affiliated group (Affirmation) among the long list of religious organizations.

The CA Supreme Court has a special page for the case, In re Marriage Cases, with all the briefs and filings.

[edited for clarity, I hope]