Marriage Equality and the End of Civilization

The decisions of the Supreme Court on marriage equality have sent the right wing to the edge of the apocalypse. Listening to this crowd, one would think that this is the end of all we hold dear—including the Republic, the American way of life, the Constitution, and any notion we might have had about our fundamental freedoms.

Over at Concerned Women for America, they are reaching for the smelling salts. Mario Diaz opines on the Court’s decision not to uphold California’s Proposition 8:

The Court’s opinion is just as significant as a decision on the merits would have been, if not more, as they struck a heavy blow at Democracy itself. The bottom line is that the vote of the millions of Californians who voted to preserve marriage as the union between one man and one woman was invalidated. The will of the people is, once again, frustrated by unelected judges.

Wherever Mr. Diaz got his legal training, he must have missed the Marbury vs. Madison, judicial review business, to say nothing of the long held legal principal of standing. Since the opponent of Proposition 8 could not demonstrate how they would be harmed by its demise, other than basic bigoted animus towards gay people, they had no business in court to begin with.

And then there is poor Peggy Nance, the chief ramrod for Concerned Women for America. In her near-hysteria, she proclaims the end of representative democracy as the Supreme Court loses credibility:

In Hollingsworth, the Proposition 8 case, five Justices have just given effective veto power to a few privileged individuals over the more than seven million Californians who voted to protect marriage as the union between one man and one woman. In doing so, they destroy the initiative measure process, the principal purpose of which is to override the actions or inactions of elected representatives who are not listening to ‘we the people.’ Now it is in the hands of those who do not want the law to defend it. Even the liberal Supreme Court of California had ruled in favor of standing for the Proposition 8 proponents. Think about that. The Supreme Courts stands to the left of the California Supreme Court.

The horror. It gets worse:

While the justices sit in their high chairs, these decisions will have very real-life consequences for American families, especially as it relates to our religious liberties. Those who hold a Biblical view of marriage can expect much persecution from the government in the years to come. In addition the thirty-eight states that have affirmed the traditional definition of marriage can expect to be dragged into future courts. The Justices have thrust us into another life-long battle for religious freedom and a bitter dispute for truth, just as they did with Roe.

Throw the Christians to the lions!

Neither Mario nor Peggy seemed to have such alarm over the Supreme Court gutting the Voter Rights Act just the day before. Overturning the will of the people and judicial activism are evil only when you do not get your way, apparently.

The people of the National Organization for Marriage are flummoxed by the fact that the Supreme Court would rule against 52% of the California voters who passed Prop 8 in the first place. It seems they want to live in an America where civil liberties of minorities are put to popular referenda. An America where Jim Crow would still be the law of the land in the old Confederacy.

And of course, we have the self-appointed spokesmen for the Divine. Leaving aside the thorny question of if presuming to speak for the Divine is blasphemy itself, they have other problems.

Mike Huckabee: “Jesus wept”. Really Mike? How do you know this? The voices in your head tell you this, or was it Jesus Himself? Jesus was so concerned about homosexuality in general and gay marriage in particular, that He never spoke a single word of it in the New Testament. I guess he was leaving it for 21^st Century Pharisees to put words in His mouth.

Do you think Jesus wept when Mathew Sheppard was tied to a barbed wire fence and beaten to death for nothing more than being gay? I do not recall you having anything sanctimonious to say about that, Mike. But its gay marriage that breaks Jesus’ heart?

No roundup of the loony bin would be complete without checking in with Bryan Fischer. As usual, he does not disappoint. Speaking with Mat Staver of Liberty “University” (aka the Falwall College of Preachin’ and Prayin’) that Christians will be second class citizens and will suffer discrimination.

Bryan also says that the Supreme Court is “Supreme Court doing to us  (presumably Christians) what the Nazis did to the Jews.

Right. How does that feel? So the intellectual construct is that unless they can single out a group for discrimination, they will be second class citizens! Down the rabbit hole we go!

Can someone text me when right-wing religious fanatics are carted off to the death camps? I’ll pop the corn.