The Orwellian-named “Respect for Marriage Act” passed the Senate by a 61-36 vote on Nov. 29, with 12 Republicans voting for the measure – including both N.C. Senators (outgoing Richard Burr and Thom Tillis).
The bill is really a combination of political posturing with the added façade of supposedly protecting interracial marriage. The bill doesn’t change anything in regard to federal recognition of same-sex marriage across all 50 states; something already legislated as the law of the land by the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision in 2015.
Further, there is no legal threat to interracial marriage.
The bill will not require states – let alone churches or religious organizations – to perform same-sex marriages, so many progressives see it as a small step in the right direction that doesn’t go far enough.
This bill will further the perception that to believe – and live – by the Bible’s view of marriage as a God-ordained institution of one man and one woman for life is homophobic bigotry. Most likely, it will lead to further collision with religious liberty in the courts and Supreme Court.
The idea that marriage is the God-ordained institution of one man and one woman was believed by virtually everyone until very recently. In 1996, the Defense of Marriage Act banned federal recognition of same-sex marriage, limiting the definition of marriage to the union of one man and one woman; it further allowed states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages granted under the laws of other states.
That bill passed the Senate 85-14 and was signed into law by Bill Clinton. It was only about 10 years ago that Obama and Biden changed their minds about it. By definition, progressives see the past as tyrannical, intolerant, oppressive and needing to be overcome, but this push to change for change’s sake will carry consequences to society –for the worse.
Politicians follow people and in 1996, 27 percent of people supported same-sex marriage; that number is now 71 percent.
If we don’t have a standard in which to ground marriage (like God’s two books: scripture and nature), then society will suffer as we go down a slippery slope.
To illustrate the danger of where this is headed, look at the logic of what the bill supposedly accomplishes.
Joe Biden said, “The United States is on the brink of reaffirming a fundamental truth: love is love. And Americans should have the right to marry the person they love.” Then should polygamy, polyamory, child marriage and close-relative marriage be recognized because love is love?
Obviously President Biden “discriminates” on who should have the right to marry the person they love; he has a different line than me – and Christians for 2,000 years – but he has a line, albeit one not founded on anything greater than popular opinion.
The question is, what will keep secular progressives from encouraging more and more destructive behavior?
Scott Kamps writes a bi-weekly column for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, thestableguy@frontier.com.