same-gender marriage

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Especially if you came from Mormon Archipelago as it only includes my major article posts.
Thanks for visiting!

Senator Gordon Smith is under fire for apparently comparing polygamy with same-sex marriage.

During a gay rights forum in Washington, D.C., Gordon was asked to reconcile his support of domestic partner benefits for same-sex couples while also supporting a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman. . .

“Part of what I fear, as you start defining marriage — we have a long history of doing that in this country, and my Mormon pioneer ancestors were the victims of that. They were literally driven from the United States in the dead of winter for following their religious beliefs.”

“I don’t want that coming back,” Smith continued. “But there are some on the front pages of your newspapers who are trying to now.”

On Friday, Smith issued a statement reaffirmed [sic] his support of gay rights while clarifying his stand on the definition of marriage. “I have been a strong proponent of gay rights — such as domestic partner benefits, ENDA (anti-discrimination laws) and stronger prosecution of hate crimes,” the senator said, “but I oppose changes in the current definition of marriage.”

On Tuesday Smith apologized for mentioning polygamy in the discussion of gay rights. “If you’d grown up a Mormon, and spent your life trying to get out from the shadow of that legacy — it’s an emotional scar that you carry,” Smith told his home state paper. “I meant no offense by sharing that part of my history.”

I’m not sure what the Senator meant by injecting his “emotional scar” into the discussion. But at the same time I don’t understand why polygamy can’t be mentioned alongside same-sex marriage.

If same-sex marriage should be legal by what standard should polygamy be barred? I’m sure Sen. Smith didn’t mean it like this, but if homosexuality is the civil rights movement of our day, modeled after black civil rights, what’s to stop polygamists from doing the same?

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]

Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid’s BYU speech discussed his upbringing, conversion, and his basic political beliefs and how they have influenced his career and perspective on public service.  Senator Reid’s prepared text can be found here.

Senator Reid had the good sense (if not class) to wait to criticize the political beliefs of past Church leaders, President Bush, and conservative christians in a press conference following his speech.

Some past prominent LDS Church leaders wrongly pressed conservatism on church members, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday during a press conference at Brigham Young University.

The Nevada senator attacked President Bush and evangelical Christians while saying members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints need to worry less about abortion and gay marriage and more about health care, global warming, education and jobs . . .

“I think people in the church have to understand there are issues more important than abortion and gay marriage.”

The Church, as an institution, would appear to think otherwise as it has made the rare exception to voice its political opinion on abortion and gay marriage and not health care, global warming, nor jobs.

 On past church leaders,:

Reid said Ezra Taft Benson, active in very conservative politics before he became a president of the LDS Church, and Ernest L. Wilkinson, the president of BYU from 1951-71, were among past church leaders “who were very right-wing people politically.”

“Members of the church are obedient,” Reid said, “they are followers in the truest sense of the word, and I think they’ve taken members of the church down a path that is the wrong path. Look at Joseph Smith. Here’s a man who was progressive, to say the least. He broke from the pack. He did things differently than they’d been done. He was against slavery. He wanted to start a national bank.

The SL Trib adds Sen. Reid’s actual comments on President Benson:

In the past years we’ve had some very prominent members of the church, like Ezra Taft Benson, who are really right-wing people. Members of the church are obedient and followers in the true sense of the word, but these people have taken members of the church down the path that is the wrong path.

Understandably, being a party’s standard bearer can be a tough role to play, but right after speaking about King Benjamin’s example and service to God, Senator Reid took some rather uncharitable digs at President Bush:

“They have focused on just a few issues, flag-burning, gay marriage, abortion,” Reid said. “The country has gone beyond that to other issues. We have a country that needs to do something about health care. Global warming is here. We have a president who doesn’t know how to pronounce the words.”

and at evangelicals:

Reid also told reporters the Republican Party has been driven by evangelical Christians for 20 years. “They are the most anti-Christian people I can imagine, the people from the Christian far right.”

More first hand accounts at Hot Blava and by Gordon Smith at Conglomerate.

The BYU Democrats had their own meeting with with Senator Reid and a photo gallery where the Senator posed with many of its members.

Same sex marriage is the gift that keeps on giving to Mitt Romney. First, it helped establish Gov. Romney as a cultural conservative when Massachusetts courts forced the issue.  Now, Iowa of all places follows suit just in time for Romney to distinguish himself from the better known GOP competition in a radio ad.