Even Same-Sex Marriage Is A Basic Civil Right

by Menachem Z. Rosensaft
Special To The Jewish Week

http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c55_a14556/Editorial__Opinion/Opinion.html

In contrast to some prominent Christian Evangelists, Pastor Rick Warren, who has been invited to deliver the invocation at President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration, does not wish gays and lesbians ill. He takes justifiable pride in his church's record of caring for AIDS victims. At the same time, he actively opposes equal rights and equal treatment for gays and lesbians, which is not at all the same as not supporting such rights. He was a strong and vocal force behind the adoption of California's Proposition 8, which deprived same-sex couples of the right to marry. Pastor Warren maintains that "This is not a political issue — it is a moral issue that God has spoken clearly about."

I do not have a problem with Orthodox
rabbis, the Vatican, the Mormon Church or Pastor Warren's Saddleback Church for refusing to perform or recognize same-sex marriages. I do, however, find offensive and objectionable their efforts to impose their religious and moral views on the rest of society.
Many right-wing religious fundamentalists of all faiths as well as conservative Republican politicians and commentators decry courts that have sought to legalize same-sex marriage as a matter of law. Kenneth Starr, the former Whitewater prosecutor who has been retained to invalidate the more than 18,000 same-sex marriages performed in California before the passage of Proposition 8, argues that judges "as servants of the people" should "bow to the will of those whom they serve."

I'd say about 10 stars for this one for Menachem Rosensaft. Excellent!

Nichole