[GCFL-discuss] Fw: 2004 and Lance's Friend

[gcfl-discuss at gcfl.net]

Lance, I guess I mostly agree with your old friend, except I am getting
fed up with the ACLU. They seem to run in and make a case out of any
gripe, instead of upholding broad principles that apply to all of us.

As I have said many times, there is no constitutional right to redefine
marriage. Rights belong to individuals. So long as the government does
anything to recognize something called marriage, everyone has an equal
right to it. And we have that. Every man has a right to a license to
marry any woman who will marry him, no matter what label the county clerk
may wish to put upon him. No man has ever been denied a license to marry
a woman on the ground that he is a homosexual. The fact that some people
seek and enjoy a relationship that is not what their fellow citizens
choose to honor and recognize, does not create a constitutional right to
such recognition. The ACLU is going to destroy the bill of rights by
stretching it so thin.

I agree with Sen. Edwards that same-sex partners should be able to visit
each other in the hospital, leave property to each other, etc. But I
would not define that in terms of sex. I would just create a process for
one individual to extend such rights to another, without marriage or the
nature of their relationship being affected. Maybe I just want my best
friend to have visiting rights equal to my family.

As to liberals and conservatives, those are dead labels that have
outlived any real meaning. Liberals don't liberate, conservatives don't
conserve.

Incidentally, the pastor of the church where I received a copy of the
Christian Voters Guide in 2000 has informed me that the church will NOT
be passing it out this year, because "Lutherans don't expect to control
the government as the Calvinists do." He added that "You present good
arguments on the non-issues of gay marriage, abortion, and school prayer.
 This just illustrates of futility of using the government to change
morality.  The real issue is the abuse of sexual freedom, which releases
a host of monsters.  Neither Bush nor Kerry knows what to do about that."

Having been raised in a church of Calvinists turned sort of liberal
sometimes, I agree. Now pentecostal Christians actually trace back
through a different tradition than either Lutherans or Calvinists,
deriving their theology in great part from John Wesley, although
departing from the insitutional doctrine of what became the Methodist
Church.

Bottom line for me is, none of the issues in the so-called "Christian
Voters Guide" belong in politics. They belong in the church, they belong
in the community through people openly advocating, teaching, preaching,
counselling, their sincere beliefs, they belong in voluntary action by
voluntary organizations which work to make principles real in the way
people live their lives. We depend far too much on government to make
things happen for us, or at least to pronounce what is right for us, even
though we know millions of people act differently. We need to get this
stuff out of the legislature and the courts.

Siarlys


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