Gay Marriage: Why Should We Care?

Have you ever asked yourself,"What does it matter if gay marriage is legal? It's not directly affecting me so shouldn't I let people of the same-sex get married?". If you have, you are not alone. I even know a lot of LDS people who have these thoughts even though the Church clearly states that same-sex marriage is against the standards of the church. Society tells us that we have no right to deny people the right to decided who they want to marry and deny them that happiness. Society tells us that our belief is wrong and that are have no right to believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. You may feel that because of the ruling from the Supreme Court, all of the justices feel that way as well. But in fact, three of the justices were against gay marriage and that had very interesting arguments. When you are in a discussion with someone about gay marriage, you can use these three points that the Justices used in their argument.

One argument that the Justices use was Judge Roberts brought up was how much of the reasoning they provided could be used for plural marriage. Now that marriage has been redefined to include gay marriages, what keeps it becoming redefined for plural marriages? I feel like a lot of better use the argument that gay marriage only affects those are gay, but this is completely false. By changing the definition of marriage, it completely opens up the door for more interpretations of marriage which affects society.

Another argument he used was how Roberts talked a lot about how the decision should stay  with the states. Something that he quoted was “we have no longer a Constitution; we are under the government of individual men, who for the time being have power to declare what the Constitution is, according to their own views of what it ought to mean”. By overruling what some states have delated as laws and completely discarding that, does raise concerns for the judicial role. He also made the point that just because it had the majority decision, it doesn’t mean that it has no basis in the Constitution.

Another argument that Roberts said was how this ruling was more based on the personal views on the other judges rather than law. Roberts pretty much called out the rest of the judges for deciding on this decision based on their personal beliefs rather than functioning of judges. He pointed out that there were no judges that are Christian or a South-Western which does play a part into how they view things. His last sentence really hit me. He said, “With each decision of ours that takes from the People a question properly left to them—with each decision that is unabashedly based not on law, but on the “reasoned judgment” of a bare majority of this Court—we move one step closer to being reminded of our impotence”. This ruling was based on the judges personal views and what the majority felt and not based on law.

These three arguments were used to make their case that gay marriage should not be legalized. As you can see, it is way more than just not wanting two people to get marriage. It has a larger affect on the institution of marriage and society. That is why it is so important that we have a firm stance on this matter and that we teach our children the correct principles. Although we cannot control what laws are passes and such, we do have control over what we raise our children to believe. We can either let our children be taught by the world ( satan's lies), or we can make sure that we are raising valiant disciple of Christ who know what is right and what is wrong regardless of what the world tells them. Like you said, it is so important that our homes to be centered around Christ.