Marriage Wars

President Obama has recently announced that he is in favor of legalizing same sex marriage. Let's look at this rationally. This announcement came just prior to a fund raising event in Hollywood, arguably the nation's most dysfunctional community. California has recently been the scene of much furor over Proposition 8, an amendment to the state constitution supporting traditional marriage.

In 1996 President Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law, defining marriage for the purpose of federal law and interstate recognition. Obama's 2008 political platform included a promise to repeal the DOMA and as of February 2011 his administration has ceased to enforce the statute or defend constitutional challenges to it.

In Canada, although Parliament passed a resolution in 1999 reaffirming the traditional definition of marriage, same sex marriage became legal with the Civil Marriage Act passed on July 20, 2005. Clearly the legislative attempt to defend traditional marriage was too little, too late.

In both of these cases the previous legislation defending traditional marriage only served to legitimize subsequent attempts to overturn the traditional definition. One has to question the wisdom of bringing the coercive power of the state to bear on this matter. It seems to me that using a big stick to enforce your point of view leaves you wide open to the possibility that someone is going to grab it and smack you with it.

Perhaps its time we recognize that what we do in the sacrament of marriage is so radically different from what the state does that any future cooperation is impossible.

U.S. Bishops Applaud Approval Of North Carolina Marriage Amendment In Face Of President Obama’s Recent Comments