Hi all, this post is going to deal with two different issues but they have remarkable similarities, at least in my opinion. The first has to do with same sex marriage and the other has to do with the protestation against a local casino here in St. Tammany Parish in Louisiana. Now, most people are familiar with the same sex marriage issue. It has been approved in six states and would have been in seven without the infamous Proposition 8 passing in California. There are many issues wrong with Proposition 8, beginning with the fact that California's state constitution is such that a small group can get enough signatures and get an issue on the ballot and that supersedes anything in the state constitution or any local laws. I knew that the California Supreme Court would uphold it because it was something that had been decided by the voters of the state. Justice cannot overturn something that has been decided by voters. The only hope for it to be overturn is if it can be proven that it violates the US Constitution. I think that it has a good chance of being overturned because of the issue of civil rights. Now, I am not a legal scholar so this is mainly what I know about the issue. What gets me about it is the fundamental Christians. Why is this such an issue for them. They supposedly want to protect marriage. What they are doing is trying to protect the definition of marriage according to their book of fairy tales. They act as if two men marrying or two women marrying is going to somehow affect the marriages of their flocks. One interesting fact is that Christians have a higher divorce rate than those of no faith or another faith. Sounds to me like they need to be focusing on their own marriages instead of trying to tell someone else that they should not marry.
The second issue which I referred to is local fundamental ministers against a proposal to build a casino resort on the shores of Lake Ponchartrain. Their argument is that this is an unchristian evil entity and they say it has no place here. Now, this is something that would bring in lots of tax dollars to support the local schools, law enforcement, and also bring in new, good paying jobs.
The true issue behind the fundamentalist opposition to same sex marriage and the building of a casino is not what they say it is. They feel threatened. The issue is that they are afraid that they will lose control of their flocks and that they might actually start thinking for themselves. These ministers are afraid that their flock might go to the casino or support homosexual couples that want to wed. Fear is the great threat to these people.
This is yet again another case of the weak needing to be protected by the constitution. Thankfully we have that and justices who will uphold it.
