President Obama Orders Justice Department to No Longer Defend Marriage Comments
Fifteen years ago Congress overwhelmingly passed the Defense of Marriage Act. It was signed into law by President Clinton in 1996. On February 23, 2011, President Barack Obama unilaterally ordered the US Justice Department to stop defending marriage. The Attorney General sent a five-page letter simply announcing the President's decision to the Congress. Government has long regulated marriage for the common good and the President's ... Continue Reading
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Does anyone remember the interview with Rick Warren when Obama said that deciding when life begins was "above his pay grade." He must now think he is God, since he now has the "authority" to decide moral issues. Wake up America, they are deciding our morality for us and it is in opposition to what our God teaches. Forget losing freedom of speech, we may lose freedom of thought. How soon before a Catholic priest will be arrested for "hate speech" for preaching that the act of homosexuality is a sin??
Marriage 101 - a few basics on marriage:
1. Marriage is a union between 1 man and 1 woman.
2. Changing the definition of marriage is impossible because marriage was created and institued by God.
3. No man, not even the pope, the president, or even all the world leaders combined can change the definition of marriage. Only God can do this.
4. There is no such thing as a "gay union" or a "gay marriage." They don't exist because it is metaphysically impossible for a "gay union" or a "gay marriage" to exist.
5. Marriage is not a discrimination against gays and lesbians. As a matter of fact, marriage has nothing to do with gays and lesbians.
6. Marriage has been and will always be a union between 1 man and 1 woman.
7. Marriage is a divine institution not a "right."
8. See numbers 1 - 7
@Jim
Now I can't speak for the Creator on this issue, but only base it on my positive inter-actions with a wide variety of articulate, compassionate free thinkers who find it strange that a religion that does not allow their clergy to marry can be so fixated on this ''moral'' issue.
We will never understand the mind of God, but Jesus gives us the commandment to "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age" (Mt 28:19-20).
God commanded Adam and Eve to " 'Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth' " (Gen 1:28). The very first commandment God gave us was about the institution of marriage.
From the very beginning of the Gospel of John, we learn that Jesus Himself is God. Remember what He says in Matthew 5:17-19: " 'Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.' "
I myself have known many articulate, compassionate free thinkers throughout the years. We must be wary of those who try to "make nice" by trying not to offend anyone. Jesus was notorious for making others uncomfortable by speaking the truth. He tells us to do the same, and sometimes we have to pay for it with our very lives. But remember what Jesus says: " 'Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God who will not receive (back) an overabundant return in this present age and eternal life in the age to come' " (Lk 18:29-30). Marriage in this life is a wonderful thing, but it's only a foreshadowing of what's to come in heaven. Those who give up marriage (e.g., priests, religious, consecrated virgins) point the way for the rest of us.
As people often recommend here, I would highly suggest reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the sacrament of Marriage. If you have doubts, read. Without trying to see this issue from God's point of view, marriage does not make sense.
Suppose we do take God out of the picture and reduce human relationships to nothing more than pleasure. Then tell me, why is it that people who are in "committed relationships" become insanely jealous when their "partners" go off to find more pleasure? I've seen it happen in traditional marriages, relationships between boyfriends and girlfriends, and homosexual relationships. If this is just what people do (because we're nothing more than animals), then we really can't be held accountable, can we? Take away trust from any relationship, and compare that with Paul's account of love in 1 Corinthians 13. Some of the "childish things" are those things we do strictly for our own pleasure. Real love requires sacrifice. Just look at a crucifix and meditate on that.
Does this really boil down to, "Someone besides me told me no, and I don't want to obey"? Guess what? That's where Original Sin came from. We've been dealing with the after-effects ever since.
I guess I can't be suprised that the social issue of the day get's brought up when the political environment starts to get tough. The election season is starting up I guess. I agree with the sentiments expressed here that we really shouldn't be suprised. We knew what this guy was about before he become president and those who voted for him helped pave the way for things like this. But that aside, we also need to acknowledge something. Our modern day culture has hardly treated marriage as the institution established by God. And sadly Christians are about as bad as the public at large. As a whole, we have failed to treat this insitutution with the respect it deserves. We have failed to provide that living example to non-Christians regarding this institution. We continue to pray for vocations, as we should, but it seems like the hierarchy in this country has completely overlooked marriages and the family as the domestic church. Just about every parish in the US spends a great deal of money forming children, but almost zero on forming adults. But I guess we can't be suprised on the divorce rates in the church if we are going to let folks get married with virtually no instruction and then basically send them off on their own with almost no assitance from the church. It's no wonder that activist got the courage to pursue things like this. They probably sat back for years and said, well no one seems to care about marriage anymore, so why don't we step up. We'll fight for it. We'll care. And while it's great to see all this movement to defend marriage, I hope it's not too little too late.
What I see in the foregoing comments scares me. So many seem closed minded and probably ignorant of the whole official explanation given by the AG. The law as passed by the legislature can't be reconciled with state laws that legitimate same sex marriage. You can't treat people from Iowa differently under Federal law than those in Louisiana. It is legally and Constitutionally wrong. It appears the Federal Law also exceeds Federal authority under the Constitution---it invades areas reserved for the states though the states must recognize other state's laws under the Full Faith and credit clause of that Constitution. In short you have to live by the rules or get out.
I hope all of you Catholics remember this when it comes time to vote. The teachings of Christ are not meant to "evolve" into what ever pleases man. They are meant to "evolve" man into what ever pleases God. We are supposed to be followers of Christ. Not followers of man. Those who support "gay marriage" and also call themselves Christian need to get back to church and start learning Gods teachings. Don't forget that the highest law is to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Love him with all your strength and with all your mind. And, love your neighbor as you love yourself." To truly be Christian, you cannot have one without the other. Sadly, so many only choose to follow the Love your neighbor part, and forget about the Love the Lord your God part. God is the one who made the rules for us to follow. How can a Christian think mans rules are better than Gods? This reminds me of a great quote from G.K. Chesterton: "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried."
King Obama has decreed that we are no longer a nation of laws. The opinions of a monarch will prevail.
The King will decide what laws will be defended and enforced and which will not based on his beliefs and politics. Black on white civil rights violations get a pass. Illegal immigrants get a pass. Gay marriages get a pass. Job destroying environmental regulations get a pass.
The Constitution gets ignored, and the general public loses the protection of laws duly enacted by the Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court unless our elected representatives and courts retaliate. Let's hope they do.
Davide, once again, if you are chaste I cannot believe you to have any sexual inclinations. You tell us the same thing everywhere you post. That you have same sex inclinations/attractions. I don't believe you. And why do you need to tell us that? Can you not move beyond your "inclinations"? Can you not make an argument/comment about something without reference to yourself? I can tell you that I have a B.A., M.A., and etc., but why? How about getting to the point where you view all people not sexually? You are either a "mole" from the homosexual movement here to soften our perception of your (and others) same sex attractions (which I doubt are truly sexual attractions), or you are fulfilling a self-fulfilling prophecy, so to speak, using us to help you to justify your sexual perversions. Would you care to comment about my analysis?
No one on this site wants to compromise on abortion, right? So why would anyone on the other side be compromising on their agenda? The GLBT community is as much a part of Obama's political base as the Christian Evangelicals are to the GOP. This decision says to me that Obama has abandoned the political center, probably a part of his re-election campaign. We as a nation are used to being governed from a political center. Reagan did it, Clinton did it, Bush 41 did it. However, Bush 43 governed from the right, and now Obama will attempt to do so from the left. So fasten your seat belts and raise your table trays... there's more turbulence ahead!
As for being "gay", John, gay is not a term to define homosexuals/homosexuality. Gay is a term used by the homosexual movement to change how the public views sexual immorality, for example. You do know that, don't you? You know I can be gay, and wish I was more often. But I am not homosexual. The two are not equal. Once again, we can see through and beyond what the homosexual movement is doing when trying to soften its image. We know where the movement leads. It leads to discrimination against those of us who are God-fearing and do not believe in homosexuality (the perversion of a gift God gave to each and everyone one of us). It leads to the destruction of family. It leads to the destruction of society. However, John, you too have been given that gift, the gift of heterosexuality. Because you too have the choice to not be homosexual.