Today the U. S. Senate voted 49-48 on a motion to end debate on the proposed constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage, 11 votes short of the 60 needed to bring it to a vote on the floor of the senate.
This was an important victory for those who are fighting to avoid making discrimination a part of the U. S. Constitution, but it's merely a battle won. The war will continue and perhaps intensify.
Think I'm exaggerating? Check out these quotes:
"We're going to continue to press this issue," Colorado Republican Sen. Wayne Allard said. "If it's up to me, we'll have a vote on this issue every year."
"We're making progress, and we're not going to stop until marriage between a man and a woman is protected," said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas.
Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said failure to pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage would be "a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions for children" in a Monday radio broadcast.
President Bush, in a 10-minute speech on Monday, said "An amendment to the Constitution is necessary because activist courts have left our nation with no other choice."
Of course, the right-wing defines "activist courts" or "activist judges" as ones who don't support their views.
Regarding the Senate vote: "It is true what this vote will do will be to help the voters identify who is and is not supportive of the family," said Dr. James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family. "And I think those that are not are going to have to answer for it."
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), "Marriage ranks as one of our most important social institutions," he writes. "Americans have made it clear that they want to protect it against activist judges like those who sit on the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts."
Folks, these people are not going away just because they lost a vote. Some of them truly believe they have the moral high ground and that they are charged with protecting their version of God's will from being violated. Others are seizing this issue as their ticket to power and wealth. Either way, they're not going to quit.
It is critical that those 47 senators who voted against bringing the amendment to a vote know that their constituents have their backs, and their vote.
It is also cricital that people understand that the attidute of treating homosexuals as second-class (if that high) citizens is NOT reflective of all Christians. There are people who love God with all their hearts and feel the leading of the Holy Spirit to strive for equality for ALL his people. We need to continue to raise up our voices and speak to God's love, not this spirit of exclusion the religious right wants people to think he is all about.
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I just wanted to say about your blog- thank you. I really appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteleah.
"...and we're not going to stop until marriage between a man and a woman is protected,"
ReplyDeleteIt's so insane how this got started and became such a faux fact in and of itself without hardly anyone expending any rational thought to counter it. I want to know from anyone who will answer to tell me how marriage between a man and a woman is left unprotected because same-sex unions are recognized!
Jim, how is your hetero marriage, or my hetero marriage in jeopardy, or even the word definition of our marriages weakened or altered because same-sex attracted people are allowed to marry?
I've searched, and I've asked, and I've not found an answer, either on a moral, social, lawful, or any other kind of level, but thought I'd just ask again in case there's something I'm missing, ya know?