We just sent out the following press release about today’s historic federal court ruling that strikes down the Texas ban on same-sex marriage:
The Rev. Dr. Larry Bethune, pastor of Austin’s University Baptist Church and a member of the Texas Freedom Network Board of Directors, has the following statement following today’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia in San Antonio that the Texas ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. Bethune said:
“Today’s decision is historic for both religious freedom and civil liberties. It respects the religious freedom of many congregations, like my own, that have been blessing same-sex unions for several years. Moreover, marriage equality acknowledges the worth and dignity of all families under the law and in our faith tradition. University Baptist Church blesses same-sex and heterosexual unions as a gift and calling from God.”
Bethune has served on the Texas Freedom Network board since 1995.
But this too needs to be considered. Even if Bethune’s church did not bless same sex marriages and considered homosexuality to be abominably sinful, that is not the issue here.
Jesus told us to love our neighbor as we do ourselves. Like it or not, LGBT people are our neighbors, friends, and family members. In the real Christian faith, which is different from that cheap, plastic, domesticated one that Jon Saenz follows, it really does matter how we treat people.
In addition, the U.S. Constitution gives every American citizen the right to equal protection under the law, including state and local laws. The Supremacy Clause in the U.S. Constitution holds that any state or local law that tries to countermand, nullify, or usurp federal law is automatically not worth the feces that were used to write it on toilet paper.
The people of Texas, especially the conservative people of Texas, need to understand that. A few years ago, some of them got this erroneous notion that they could take all of their extreme right BS to the state and local levels, set up their own little mini-kingdoms, pass a bunch of extremist laws as if the federal government does not exist, and live a separate life in a conservative nutcase paradise of their own creation.
It ain’t going to happen folks, and today’s court ruling proves it. You were unable to change government at the Federal level after decades of trying, and you will be unsuccessful at the state and local levels too. There is no escape from the power of the Federal government—no escape whatsoever. President Eisenhower proved it when he sent the fully armed 101st Airborne Division to Arkansas to enforce the court-ordered desegregation of public schools in the 1950s. Resistance is futile.
You say: “It just seems so unfair and so against our values. Why does it have to be this way?”
I can tell you, but you are not going to like it. There was this thing called the Constitutional Convention that was held in Philadelphia circa 1787. People like James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, and other founding fathers met there to create the U.S. Constitution. These men appreciated learning and good sense, and they knew that assorted extremist nutcases like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul were lurking out there in the American future. They lurk in all human times and places on Earth. The founding fathers worked really hard to create a government with enough checks and balances to ensure that such nutcases would never be able to take over a U.S. government and enforce their will on the people. This is why you have failed for decades. The founding fathers intenionally stacked the cards against you in 1787 because they knew that you nutcases were lurking out here in the future (2014) and would try your best to destroy the government and nation that they had created. They meant to prevent it, and it is working just the way they planned for it to work.
On a final note, I have been watching the state religious freedom law in Arizona and all of the nutcase hubbub and swirl around it. I think it is fascinating that conservative Christians are attempting to use this law to do “precisely” what the Holy Bible predicts the Anti-Christ will do to Christians when his kingdom comes—namely—single out groups of hated people and institute policies that will prevent them from being able to buy and sell in the economy. It seems to me that everything is about to be present in Arizona except the “mark of the beast” branded on conservative Christian foreheads. Imagine that—conservative Christians intentionally taking a play straight out of the Anti-Christ playbook. I guess that surprises everyone—everyone but me that is.
^^^ This. Just this. Perfectly written. Thank you.