by Ben Sheffler
In a close but unsurprising ruling, the Supreme Court ruled on June 26 that part of the Defense of Marriage Act, which ultimately defined marriage as being between a man and a woman, is unconstitutional.
President Obama has been calling for equality for everyone for some time now, and both of the Justices he’s appointed during his presidency were of the majority opinion (5-4) that DOMA violated the equal protection clause.
President Clinton, who signed the 1996 DOMA, went to The Washington Post to express his newly formed opinion opposing the law. As he said in his editorial, there weren’t any states in which same-sex marriage was legal when he signed the law.
In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage. But now, 13 states and the District of Columbia have legalized it, and there will likely be more.
The issue before the Supreme Court wasn’t whether same-sex marriage should be legal or not, but whether those couples that are legally married should receive the same federal benefits, such as filing taxes jointly, that opposite-sex married couples get.
The petitioner in the case the Supreme Court heard, Edith Windsor, was forced to pay $363,053 in estate tax when her spouse Thea Spyer died in 2009. They were married in Canada in 2007 after being partners for 40 years.
For a country who forced Native Americans to either assimilate into our culture or leave, once considered a black slave 3/5 of a human, and denied women the right to vote until 1919, it’s not accurate to say that America was built on equal rights, although that might’ve been the intent.
Today, however, everything seems to be about equal rights. And that’s how it should be.
The Bible says “For God does not show favoritism” (Romans 2:11).
The Declaration of Independence says that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
President Lincoln reiterated the point in his 1863 Gettysburg Address that “our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
I agree with the Supreme Court that if a same-sex couple is legally married, they should be able to receive the same benefits as anyone else.
I don’t, however, agree with homosexuality. I view it in the same way as I do lying, adultery, stealing, murder, and so on; it is a sin against God.
And the thing about sin is that we all succumb to it; nobody is perfect.
So I repent. And the Bible says God “is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
In no way do I hate homosexuals, but because God “detests the way of the wicked” (Proverbs 15:9), I cannot agree with any lifestyle that goes against His will, including my own at times. But I will continue to love my neighbor as myself.
Young people need to get informed and stand up for what they believe is right.
The great thing about America is that we have the ability to express our opinions as I am doing now, and I firmly believe in equal rights for everyone.
