New York Times Supporters of same-sex marriage celebrated the Supreme Court rulings on
Wednesday as landmark decisions that brought the nation closer to full
equality. Opponents said the court had badly overreached in striking
down the Defense of Marriage Act, and they vowed to press on against
same-sex marriage in the courts and through a constitutional ban.
“This doesn’t end it,” said Representative Tim Huelskamp, Republican of
Kansas. “If anything, it’s been ignited and continues to be discussed.”
He said the court action was an attempt to “short-circuit the process
and to undo a decision, a strong bipartisan decision, signed by
President Bill Clinton and supported by then-Senator Joe Biden; for this
court to overrule it, I think folks are tired of judges dictating.”
Backers of same-sex marriage in Washington and around the nation
embraced the rulings and welcomed what they said was the demise of a
biased federal law that turned gay Americans into second-class citizens.[....]
But he insisted that same-sex marriage opponents had scored a victory in
the case involving California’s ban, Proposition 8. Rather than embrace
a broad constitutional right to same-sex marriage, as the lead lawyers
Theodore B. Olson and David Boies had urged, the justices issued a
ruling that ensured a return to same-sex marriage only in California.
The rulings today although not as extreme as they could have been are effectively initiating kosvim ksuba lezochor.
ReplyDeleteWe in America see the decline of the country in every sphere, military, financial, scientific, moral etc. Rabbi Miller said that if this happens the glory that America once knew will be gone.
This is one more sign of Hashem Yisborach's plan to hasten the coming of Moshiach. (I am not a Lubavitcher.)
This is hardly a shock. In an amoral secular society there is no valid reason marriage cannot be redefined to "any two consenting adults". The question is: why are the same people who demand gay marriage be legitimized also against polygamy? If marriage can be any two people, why not three or more?
ReplyDeleteThat is also a question for the Rabbis. The Torah permits polygamy. Since The Herem of R' Gershom, whatever his motives for this, it has become something we consider as intuitive, i.e. we have adopted Christian values of monogamy.
DeleteEddie, I don't know about you but one is more than enough for me. One could think of it this way: wanting more than one wife at once is a sign that maybe the guy's become a shoteh and thus his kiddushin to the second would be posul?
DeleteSince "love" is the basis for this ruling, you can add bestiality, pedophilia with parental consent and incest to the list. If a man loves his dog, the marriage should be legal according to gay rights logic.
ReplyDeleteEventually it will be, no doubt.
DeleteInterestingly over at the Morethodoxy blog there is the occasional post wistfully wishing that Orthodoxy could accommodate homosexual marriage so I asked what the opinion would be about intergenerational marriage (eg. father and daughter)? Well of course they couldn't support that! That's just wrong! But not homosexual marriage?
DeleteI wonder what would happen if a widow approached one of them and asked for help marrying her 3 year old daughter to the local elderly businessman?
But the dog argument is off the mark. Dogs can't consent to a relationship.
I think it's a terrible argument to place "כותבין כתובות לזכרים" on a slippery slope leading to bestiality, etc. As the gemara and midrashim imply, it's the end of the slope! It doesn't get worse than that.
ReplyDeleteCalifornia-type referenda are now useless. The public votes for X, a district court biased against X strikes it down, the state officials who oppose X can't be forced to defend the referendum result in a higher court, and the public at large has no standing to step in for the state officials!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, regardless of the legal issues, capitulating to pressure to validate or reward immoral practices doesn't do much good for civilization. At what point does a place become unacceptable for a Jew to live in?