Trent Benedetti/Commentary | Posted: Thursday, November 20, 2008 12:00 am
The religious community being targeted as racist, bigoted or discriminating in their view of marriage, I believe, is misunderstood in their viewpoint.
Gay and lesbian marital rights are being argued as a fundamental freedom. It is true that history has known cases in which discrimination has been committed in the name of Btruth.C
Here, the truth is that the history of marriage between a man and a woman has been passed down through the centuries, 5,000 years of history, by the scrolls and writings of the God of the Old Testament.
These ancient Jewish writings concerning marriage were adopted by virtually all cultures as being the truth. In time, civil government or the state adopted many of the rules and laws of the Bible.
It has been said that every law made by man can be called a law insofar as it is not in disagreement with natural laws. But if it is somehow opposed to the natural law, then it is not really a law, but rather a corruption of the law.
The natural law is for a marriage between a man and a woman for the procreation of the human race. The responsibility that first concerns married couples is a call to be givers of life, on the basis of an ever greater awareness of the meaning of procreation as a unique event that clearly reveals that human life is a gift received in order then to be given as a gift. It is clear from the ongoing protests that the opponents of Proposition 8 feel there is a discrimination against the rights of gays and lesbians to have a right to be married. Most proponents of Prop. 8 believe in a democracy that recognizes every person?s dignity and respect for his or her rights.
Are supporters of Prop. 8 denying the freedoms of gay and lesbians in the name of ethical relativism? There are those who consider such relativism as an essential condition of democracy, inasmuch as it alone is held to guarantee tolerance, mutual respect between people and acceptance of the decisions of the majority, whereas moral norms considered being objective and binding are held to lead to authoritarianism and intolerance.
I believe proponents of Prop. 8 have a different viewpoint. They believe the basis of these ethics or values cannot be provisional and changeable majority opinions, but only the acknowledgment of an objective moral law which, as the natural law written in the human heart, is the obligatory point of reference for civil law itself.
Opponents of Prop. 8 are vigorously fighting the vote in court and preparing a new ballot measure to reverse the now constitutional amendment of marriage between a man and a woman. Therefore, the natural law will be reduced to a mere mechanism for regulating different and opposing interests on a purely empirical basis.
Some might think that even this function, in the absence of anything better, should be valued for the sake of peace in society.
Even in our participatory system of government, the regulation of interests often occurs to the advantage of the most powerful, since they are the ones most capable of maneuvering not only levers of power but also of shaping the formation of consensus. In such a situation, democracy easily becomes an empty word.
The real purpose of the civil law should be to guarantee an ordered social coexistence in true justice, so that all may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way.
Precisely for that reason, civil law must ensure that all members of society enjoy respect for certain fundamental rights.
As Family Code Section 297.5 states, under California law, gay or lesbian partners Bshall gave the same rights, protections and benefits as married spouses.C
If these rights are not equal with a marriage, civil society should look into these rights. Is it the inheritance laws, medical protection laws or other laws that are still denying the domestic partners rights?
We, as a society, can do much to ensure the fundamental rights of our fellow human beings, according to the law of reciprocity in giving and receiving, of self-giving and of the acceptance of others.
Trent Benedetti is chairman of Committee INC.
November 20, 2008