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Weblog: The End of Traditional Marriage?
Religious activists say Massachusetts decision is monumental—and may be cause for revolt.
Compiled by Ted Olsen | posted 11/19/2003

The surprise today is not that conservative religious activists are upset about yesterday's Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling "that barring an individual from the protections, benefits, and obligations of civil marriage solely because that person would marry a person of the same sex violates the Massachusetts Constitution."...

... the statement from pundit Gary Bauer quoted later in the Times article. Calling the decision "the most intolerant act of judicial tyranny in recent memory," Bauer called for open revolt. "Perhaps it is time for another Boston Tea Party. The heirs of Bunker Hill and Concord Bridge should not passively accept this decision by four robed individuals."

It's worse than tyranny, said Focus on the Family founder James Dobson. "This is a very sad day in the life of this country, and one that I believe invites the very judgment of God as we move arrogantly away from our moral underpinnings," he said on today's radio broadcast. "He will not be mocked, and we warned us through the prophet Isaiah, 'Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.' … That's what happened yesterday in the state of Massachusetts.'"

...The reason that the courts are risking divine judgment goes beyond simple sexual ethics, says syndicated columnist Cal Thomas—the judges are playing God. "Marriage was not invented by the postal service as a convenient way to deliver the mail," he wrote. "It was established by God as the best arrangement for fallen humanity to organize and protect itself and create and rear children … . What is most disturbing about this latest affront to tradition and biblical wisdom is that those who would undermine the old have nothing new to offer in its place. It is like morally corrupt ancient Israel when there was no king 'and everyone did what was right in his own eyes' (Judges 21:25)."

It's sure to get more disturbing, predicts Robert Knight, director of Concerned Women for America's Culture and Family Institute. "To mandate marital recognition for non-marital relationships is to create a lie that will ensure coercion against people who stand for the truth," he said in a press release. "Christians are sure to be targets of persecution for their beliefs if 'gay' marriage is given legal backing."...