Posted on 09/08/2005 5:15:20 PM PDT by sionnsar
The Rev. Susan Russell, president of Integrity, is at it again. She's trying to gin up support for a rally on the California state capitol tonight to protest Gov. Schwarzenegger's threatened veto of that state's same-sex marriage bill:
If you can help organize carpools or candles, speakers, sign making - we would be forever indebted.
IT IS NOT TOO LATE - We must move quickly and with one voice tonight to ask Governor Schwarzenegger to re-think his position. He has not actually vetoed the bill yet because the bill hasn't even reached his desk. Our lives hang in the balance. Governor Schwarzenegger has the power to make history and secure protections for our families - are you willing to help us TONIGHT?
Join Equality California at the State Capitol TONIGHT for a vigil and rally asking the Governor not to shut the door on civil rights and protections for tens of thousands of same-sex couples and their children.
UPDATE: Russell's pretzel logic gets even more twisted...
September 8, 2005
Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,
I read with dismay your announced intention to veto the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act passed by the California State Senate and Assembly. I write add to my voice to those urging you to reconsider.
I write as a priest and pastor asking you to reject the rabid rhetoric of those on the Religious Right who represent themselves as having sole possession of "Christian Values" on the issue of marriage equality. They do not speak for me or for my parish or for the countless other faithful Christians who understand God's inclusive love as available to all: rich and poor, black and white, gay and straight. Furthermore, in a nation where separation of church and state is an essential aspect of our very identity as Americans it is unconscionable that any faith-based perspective should be allowed derail our democracy with their theology. Please be the governor who takes a stand to keep church and state separate and ensure both our religious freedom and our civil liberties.
I write as a lesbian in a partnered relationship asking you to use the power of your office to bring us a step closer to realizing the American dream of a nation where "liberty and justice for all" truly means all. Gay and lesbian families are currently without the equal protection of over one thousand legal rights, benefits and responsibilities automatically granted to married couples. As we watch with horror the unfolding tragedy in the Gulf Coast we recognize that natural disasters do not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation but relief resources do: gay and lesbian families will fail to qualify for much of the aid and assistance their straight neighbors will receive. Please be the governor we remember as ensuring that this will not be the fate our families face in California when the inevitable earthquake we call "The Big One" hits.
I write as American citizen and California native asking you to stand on the side of justice on this important issue. The elected representatives of the California electorate have passed this piece of legislation and if our voice as an electorate counts for anything then AB849 deserves your signature. This bill is not in conflict with Proposition 22 - an initiative written to "close a loophole" between California's marriage law and the law of other jurisdictions. Rather, this legislation changes that law to give the equal protection guaranteed in the Constitution to gay and lesbian couples - citizens who seek only the same rights, privileges and responsibilities as their fellow straight Californians. Had voters in the 1960's been able to challenge the end of segregation through the initiative process is there any doubt that those in power would have voted to keep the status quo? Please be the governor who history remembers not as standing with Lester Maddox blocking the door to equal rights but with those throughout the proud history of this great country who risked much to open the door to all Americans.
Faithfully,
The Reverend Susan Russell
All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena CA
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. "...if our voice as an electorate counts for anything..."
If your voice as an electorate counts for anything, then you'll have enough votes to override, and you'll have even more ammunition in your fight against Ahnold. In the meantime, get off the capitol steps -- you're a fire hazard.
Arrrgghhh! As someone who worked on getting Proposition 22 passed, I am so tired of this issue coming up again and again.
The reverend argues that to define marriage as between a man and a woman is somehow a religious imposition on the state. What makes her think giving privileges and rights to a married couple doesn't benefit the state? Religion isn't why states around the world recognize and support marriage. What is a state but a collection of tribes? And what do tribes normally do? Compete to the point sometimes of wiping each other out. What marriage does is unite two tribes, first legally through marriage and then permanently through the commingling of two tribes' DNA in the offspring. So even though the marriage might break up, the tribes are indissoluably fused in the children. This leads to a more stable society and is why civil authorities have traditionally favored marriages which facilitate this genetic bonding. Where do gay and lesbian couples fit in? Well, to the extent they have children, they have to forcibly separate the child from at least one half of their genetic tribe so the stability is not the same as that provided by married genetic donors (i.e. a man and a woman). For that reason it is logically and legally understandable that the government would discriminate between heterosexual unions and homosexual unions.
Now, sorry to rant on but I wanted to respond to each of her points.
The reverend argues that justice requires equal treatment of homosexual families in the event of disasters. Why? Homosexual couples are not uniquely shut out from married privileges. To the extent that privileges and rights are reserved to married folk, then the couples who don't bother to get married are in the same boat and their children are equally "disadvantaged". In other words, they are not "singled" out for punishment. You can argue that all people deserve the same privileges and rights as married but then you have just defined marriage into nothingness because it encompasses everything. Many heterosexual couples cannot marry for one reason or another: age, finances, consanguinity, etc. They are no different than homosexual couples who cannot marry. Because one relationshp might not have the same privileges in a disaster is a poor argument to wipe out all distinctions.
Lastly, the reverend argues that the governor should respect the will of the people as expressed by their elected representatives. That's probably the most specious argument, considering she must argue that indirect representation should trump and overrule direct participation by the voters as was involved in Prop. 22. She argues that Prop. 22 isn't contradicted by the law. To hold that position one has to twist oneself into a pretzel of logic. Prop. 22 was passed in a state that prohibited marriage except between one man and one woman and Prop. 22 was designed to allow California to refuse to recognize gay marriage if it passed in other states and if the full faith and credit clause were invoked. To argue that Prop. 22 voters intended that gay marriage was perfectly all right if the state itself legalized it, is patently absurd. People were voting on the whole issue of gay marriage, not just gay marriages performed out of state.
Now, forgive my varrying-on but I am so tired of this self-righteous pontificating on gay marriage and how truly Christian people must accept it. The reverend should spend more time worrying about the state of her soul than the state of her union.
About half of these "legal rights" and "benefits" are actually liabilities.
Los Angeles maybe. Louisiana, not so sure.
All Saints Episcopal is in Los Angeles (Pasadena to be exact). It is SUCH a liberal church, always at the slashing-edge of everything 'new'. You would never go there expecting to hear the GOSPEL, don'tcha know. You would NEVER go there without Holy Water.
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