Posted on 05/01/2012 5:41:30 AM PDT by pgyanke
Background: A "friend" posted this article to their wall on Facebook. In response, I wrote the article below. This is the second time I've been "unfriended" on Facebook... and both by leftists who really don't want to talk about it.
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I will be voting for the Marriage Amendment.
1. The Marriage Amendment is pro-freedom.
The government didn't define the institution of marriage. Marriage has been here since the dawn of time. The family is the building block of all societies and the foundations of our civilization. When a man and a woman come together, they beget children. This is a family. When families come together, they make a tribe. When tribes come together, they form a nation. The nation formed by these interactions is subservient to the will of the sovereign people at its root because it was formed by them to perform functions for them. Some governments are now overturning the order of society by regulating and altering the natural relationships between parents and children… and our society isn’t better for it.
What’s happening in this Amendment is the opposite of the State creating or regulating the institution of Marriage… the Amendment is an exercise of the people to ensure the State remembers its place in the social order. Essentially, the State will be required to recognize what is biologically and historically obvious. Why is it necessary? It is necessary simply because there has been a move in this country to restrict the personal and religious freedom of conservative people by undermining the sacred institutions necessary to the natural order of society. Since some states have pushed for gay marriage and used these unions to pressure other states, we now have 35 states in the country with strong Marriage Amendments as inoculation against the trend. A majority would like NC to join their company.
Some say that NC already has strong legal language against “gay marriage” and this Amendment is unnecessary. That was also true in other states. Until just a few years ago, no state recognized marriage between any union other than one man with one woman. Now, there are eight states recognizing same sex unions as marriage. To those who think it couldn’t happen here, I offer the example of Iowa… no one thought it would happen there, either.
Some say that this Amendment is discriminatory and hurtful to homosexuals in our society. This argument is contradictory to the first argument. How can our just laws currently outlawing same sex unions be sufficient if they are already considered discriminatory? The opposition is simply outlining the need for the Amendment—to protect the laws already in place against those who would alter them.
People are free to live with whomever they choose before and after this Amendment is passed. They are free to enter into relationships and file contractual documents of all sorts. They can establish their trusts, powers of attorney and estate plans to have anyone of their choosing manage their affairs, inherit their assets or become guardians for their children. What they won’t be able to do is have the State recognize any union besides one man and one woman as a Marriage nor consider inviolable the relationships the State itself has established.
What is different about Marriage and other contractual arrangements? Marriage is a natural union of a family as a basic unit of society. It is a universally recognized joining of man and woman in begetting children. The married partners have a natural right to all jointly owned assets and the children issued from their union have a natural right of inheritance. Relationships created by the State are subject to the administrations of the State. In short, marriage is natural while contractual relationships are made and administered by government authority.
Why should we care? We should care because the State really has three main functions when you boil it all down. The State should be concerned with continuity, stability and justice. Same-sex unions do not benefit the State in continuity. Taken to the extreme, a society of all same-sex unions would die out in a generation. Sure, you can have same-sex couples adopt children… but those children will still have to have come from the traditional, biological union. Long established statistics have shown that strong, traditional families promote societal stability. As the family has degraded, the societal fabric has frayed. Finally, it does not suit justice to have the State redefine an institution over which it has no authority.
2. The Marriage Amendment is Decidedly Christian.
Read your Bible. You will find Marital language from beginning to end… from Genesis to Revelation… from Adam and Eve to Christ and His Church. In fact, the Church tells us that the Holy Trinity is the height and summit of all truth because it is the mystery of God in Himself. The Trinity is the mystery of Who He is... and we were created in His image and likeness. Male and female He created us. When male and female come together in the marital embrace, their love takes on flesh of its own in their children. The family is the reflection of our creation in the image of the Holy Trinity in two people whose love becomes tangible in a third. Pope John Paul II told us that God, in His deepest mystery, isn’t a solitude but a family because He has within Himself Fatherhood, Sonship and the essence of the Family which is Love. A Christian who would undermine these sacred truths by redefining Marriage doesn’t understand his faith at all.
St Paul reminded us that our Earthly battle isn’t against flesh and blood but rather against the rulers and dark powers which have been aligned against God from the beginning. In attacking our understanding of marriage, the dark powers are attacking our understanding of God’s Covenant and our purpose as His sons and daughters. Our Lord reminded us in His last days among us in the flesh that the world would hate us because it first hated Him. Satan, in attacking marriage, is waging the latest battlefront of his long war against God in attacking His image and likeness in the family.
3. The Marriage Amendment is all about family.
At a time when the family is under attack from the forces of divorce and neglect and our society is watching the very fabric of our civilization crumble, it seems strange that anyone could consider a further attack on the meaning of family to be helpful. It’s accepted as common wisdom that strong families beget strong societies. Rather than redefining what it means to be a family, we should be working hard to regain the truth that we’ve neglected… society will fail without the traditional family as its foundation.
Those working against the Marriage Amendment have endeavored to dehumanize it. No one would take people seriously who argued that the “Marriage Amendment” would hurt families. Yet, that is what they are doing by calling it “Amendment One.” When you can take the true subject matter out of the law, you can ascribe all sorts of evils to it. If we could have this debate honestly, the conversation would do a great deal to educate and support our families as we explain what is beautiful and sacred in the institution. Instead, we have to engage the battle in simply stating what the Amendment is truly about and fighting to overcome the campaign of lies.
If marriage can simply be redefined by the State, then marriage itself has no fundamental meaning… contemplate that for a few minutes and see the threat to our way of life!
Hi pgyanke. Do you have a link to the Marriage Amendment itself? I live in Pennsylvania and would like to check with my legislators to see if this is in place.
Here is a link to a website with more information and other links.
NC needs to be taken back into the GOP fold. Too many damn yankees moving down there and polluting the place.
Hear, Hear!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My quote was the text of the Marriage Amendment in NC, not a statement of my personal opinion. Obviously, NC can't pass an Amendment outlawing acts in other states...
Ping.
I got into an involved discussion on a Facebook status update by a girl fresh out of college who professes to be Christian, but who tried to pose some legal arguments against the amendment. I refuted them pretty handily, and she finally reached the point where she didn’t want to talk about it anymore.
Very good! Thank you for the well reasoned arguments!
I am disgusted by the blantant LIES being used by the “againsties” like “children will lose their insurance”. WHAT????
It amazes me how some seemingly reasonable folks have been deceived by this simple ammendment: that some how declaring the obvious is “discrimination” or is “harmful to children” when it opposite is true: it strenghtens the institution itself and for the reasons you mention and it saves children from all sorts of “unintended consequences.” [such as being forced to learn that homosexual marriages are just like every other kind. They are not and cannot be]. Yes I understand that if the ammendment fails, there is still the law in place but it would be challenenged immediately: indeed, there is already a lawsuit pending from Asheville.
So my wife and I early voted and we are FOR: our yard signs proclaim FOR and I urge all who I happen to discuss it with to be FOR.
I am hoping it passes strongly: anything over 60% should put the issue to a deserved rest.
I intend to vote FOR the Amendment, but the language you quote is for the ballot only. The actual amendment contains some additional wording. Here is the full text, as I understand it:
“Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State. This section does not prohibit a private party from entering into contracts with another private party; nor does this section prohibit courts from adjudicating the rights of private parties pursuant to such contracts.”
As I said, I will vote FOR the Amendment, primarily for the simple reason that “marriage” already has a definition, and that the state should not be in the business of redefining words.
April 6, 2011
*S514-v-3* A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO AMEND THE CONSTITUTION TO PROVIDE THAT MARRIAGE BETWEEN ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN IS THE ONLY DOMESTIC LEGAL UNION THAT SHALL BE VALID OR RECOGNIZED IN THIS STATE.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1. Article 14 of the North Carolina Constitution is amended by adding the following new section:
"Sec. 6. Marriage. Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State. This section does not prohibit a private party from entering into contracts with another private party; nor does this section prohibit courts from adjudicating the rights of private parties pursuant to such contracts.
"SECTION 2. The amendment set out in Section 1 of this act shall be submitted to the qualified voters of the State at a statewide election to be held on the date of the first primary in 2012, which election shall be conducted under the laws then governing elections in the State. Ballots, voting systems, or both may be used in accordance with Chapter 163 of the General Statutes. The question to be used in the voting systems and ballots shall be:
"[ ] FOR [ ] AGAINST
Constitutional amendment to provide that marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State."
SECTION 3. If a majority of votes cast on the question are in favor of the amendment set out in Section 1 of this act, the State Board of Elections shall certify the amendment to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State shall enroll the amendment so certified among the permanent records of that office.
SECTION 4. The amendment set out in Section 1 of this act is effective upon certification.
SECTION 5. This act is effective when it becomes law.
Your response to the “http://brentwoodcox.blogspot.com/2012/04/why-ill-vote-against.html"; post is excellent.
I’m voting “For Marriage” in NC also.
Note...we drove up to Boone yeaterday. There are a SLEW of 4x8 foot plywood signs along 321 advocating Vote For the Marriage Act. People are not shy about expressing their feelings up there!
That’s wonderful!
Part of the discussion which ensued after my initial post (before I was "removed") centered around this. A "reasonable" liberal tried to take my points apart... and failed. He also showed the contradictory nature of their argument. He said in one place that we already have laws in place to protect traditional marriage and in another that this Amendment is discriminatory. Logically then, the current laws are discriminatory and will be challenged.
That’s not what it reads. I have friends on FB. They told me it read
“This act will legalize killing homosexuals, allow women to be dragged through the streets by their hair, enslave children, brutalize old people and outlaw Christianity”.
You obviously can’t read.
Hmmm....In short, we’ll become a Muslim country.
Your friend said it all in Section 1, Paragraph 2.
The dishonest campaign against this amendment is truly horrific to watch. And the fact that pervert groups are pouring millions into is just shows how desperate they are to advance their agenda against overwhelming opposition to it.
I too will be voting for the amendment. I am aghast at the ads against it... really? Such blatant lies is insulting to those producing the ads and to those of us who actually have reasoning powers.
Very good!
Another point, if you find yourself in a discussion with someone claiming to be “libertarian,” is that the imposition of “homosexual marriage” is not pro-liberty, but is authoritarian. Under current conditions, two men or two women ... or a larger number of people, some household pets, and a fine Victorian sofa ... can go through a ceremony, hold a reception, and declare themselves “married.”
What they cannot do, without the guns of the state behind them, is force other people to recognize them as married. They can’t force a church to host their ceremony, or a priest, minister, or judge to perform one. They can’t force the public schools to teach children that two men, the housekeeper, and the antiques are just as legitimate a “family” as a husband, wife, and their children.
What the homosexual lobby wants is not liberty, but control; not equality, but special treatment.
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