A QUEST TO DISCRIMINATE: Peter J. Gomes

...First, despite rhetoric to the contrary, marriage is not under attack. No one has argued that marriage is a bad thing. No one has said that men may no longer marry women, no penalties are attached to heterosexual marriage, and it is unlikely that the heterosexual marriage rate will change in consequence of court actions.

The institution of marriage has far more to fear from the rate of heterosexual divorce.

Second, it must be remembered that in the United States, marriage is a civil and not, in the first instance, an ecclesiastical matter. Nothing in the movement to accord the civil right of marriage to homosexuals affects how religious institutions provide for marriage under their rubrics. The Catholic Church is free to define marriage as it always has: Its tenets are not subject to legal review. Unfortunately some religious institutions wish to give their denominational convictions the force of civil law.

Certain custodians of the civil rights movement in this country argue vehemently that in this debate there is no moral equivalency to the high ground of the civil rights movement. ...

Not only does this position fail to remember that civil rights is an "American thing" and not just an "African-American thing," but it also produces strange and unlikely alliances. It is a wonder of contemporary wedge politics that the heirs of the civil rights movement are seen to be in league with the most conservative elements of the Republican Party -- with whom the interests of most African-Americans are not usually found.

What then should we do? Certainly, we should not amend the federal or state constitutions. In the over-heated and partisan climate of the debate on the nature of marriage, now is no time to inhibit the rights of the several states to do what they do best, which is to make just and equitable laws for their people. Amending the federal and state constitutions is the wrong solution to an ill-defined problem.

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posted by Eve at 5:24 PM VOTE

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