Rev. Mark H. Creech
America: struck with judicial blindness
By Rev. Mark H. Creech
In an irony of ironies, during the week of Valentine's, two federal judges overturned the marriage protection amendments of Kentucky and Virginia, single-handedly redefining romance and marriage.
According to the Christian Post (CP), U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II ruled that Kentucky's constitutional marriage protection amendment, which the state approved in 2004 "violates the United States Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law, even under the most deferential standard of review."
According to the Associated Press (AP), U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen, ruled, "The court is compelled to conclude that Virginia's Marriage Laws unconstitutionally deny Virginia's gay and lesbian citizens the fundamental freedom to choose to marry. Government interests in perpetuating traditions, shielding state matters from federal interference, and favoring one model of parenting over others must yield to this country's cherished protections that ensure the exercise of the private choices of the individual citizen regarding love and family." Virginia approved its marriage protection amendment in 2006.
Judge Allen, however, did stay her decision pending appeal.
Both court challenges were brought by gay couples. The AP also reports that there are currently more than a dozen states with federal lawsuits challenging state marriage amendments. My own home state, North Carolina, is among them.
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council decried the Kentucky decision, rightly arguing it was "a deep betrayal of a judicial system infected with activists judges who are legislating from the bench." Matt Staver of Liberty Counsel said concerning the Virginia decision, "The decision is outrageous and legally flawed. Judges would be well-served to read the U.S. Constitution and not invent or rewrite it."
Such court decisions are certainly a sign of the times – a sign that we are heading for an impending judgment. This matter burdens my heart greatly nearly every day, sometimes with tears.
John Phillips, the great preacher and Bible commentator once said concerning the story of Sodom's celebration of homosexuality and its ultimate destruction, the first sign of the imminence of God's judgment is a judicial blindness – an inability to make right moral judgment. Citing in Genesis chapter 19 how the angelic visitors struck the perverse mob pressing on Lot's door with blindness, Phillips writes:
Not only is the Constitution based in eternal verities that come from the Judeo-Christian ethic, but neither is there any legal basis for redefining marriage as a union of two people regardless of their gender. The Constitution provides no right to same-sex marriage and even the U.S. Supreme Court has declared the states have a pre-eminent duty for determining marriage's meaning. Nevertheless, radical activist federal judges are saying that whenever the state defines the institution as one man and one woman, it's discriminatory.
Well, if it's discriminatory to circumscribe marriage traditionally, then it's just another form of discrimination to deny marriage to polygamists, polyamorists, incestuous couples, and even pedophiles. Are we to believe such couplings often practiced by pagan cultures of the past, which were either incinerated or reduced to ruins for their sexual deviance by God's own hand, are somehow now in the best interest of our great Republic? Will we legally visit and remove the ban on these too? With rulings such as these, there is nothing to prevent it.
I suggest it is both madness and blindness. And these new legal precedents will essentially destroy the nation if not reversed. America must reclaim its sexual sanity or lose its life.
This is not the kind of judicial blindness represented by Justice with the blindfold over her eyes and the scales in her hand. Instead, it makes a mockery of it. This instead is a visionless Justice, groping her way through the darkness of peril.
Phillips writes, "If there is one thing that marks perversion, it is its deep-seated character. As a cancerous cell in a healthy body grows and spreads until it destroys the health of the whole body, so perverted lust entrenches itself and takes over the life." [2]
If this legal trend continues, we are now seeing the beginning of a new era – an era of judicial sightlessness – the beginning of our judgment as a nation – the start of our end.
This is not the fresh air of new freedom that we smell; it is the smoke of Sodom.
God save us.
Resources:
[1], [2], Phillips, John. Exploring Genesis. Neputune, New Jersey: Loizeaux Brothers, 1992, pg. 161.
© Rev. Mark H. Creech
February 16, 2014
In an irony of ironies, during the week of Valentine's, two federal judges overturned the marriage protection amendments of Kentucky and Virginia, single-handedly redefining romance and marriage.
According to the Christian Post (CP), U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II ruled that Kentucky's constitutional marriage protection amendment, which the state approved in 2004 "violates the United States Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law, even under the most deferential standard of review."
According to the Associated Press (AP), U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen, ruled, "The court is compelled to conclude that Virginia's Marriage Laws unconstitutionally deny Virginia's gay and lesbian citizens the fundamental freedom to choose to marry. Government interests in perpetuating traditions, shielding state matters from federal interference, and favoring one model of parenting over others must yield to this country's cherished protections that ensure the exercise of the private choices of the individual citizen regarding love and family." Virginia approved its marriage protection amendment in 2006.
Judge Allen, however, did stay her decision pending appeal.
Both court challenges were brought by gay couples. The AP also reports that there are currently more than a dozen states with federal lawsuits challenging state marriage amendments. My own home state, North Carolina, is among them.
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council decried the Kentucky decision, rightly arguing it was "a deep betrayal of a judicial system infected with activists judges who are legislating from the bench." Matt Staver of Liberty Counsel said concerning the Virginia decision, "The decision is outrageous and legally flawed. Judges would be well-served to read the U.S. Constitution and not invent or rewrite it."
Such court decisions are certainly a sign of the times – a sign that we are heading for an impending judgment. This matter burdens my heart greatly nearly every day, sometimes with tears.
John Phillips, the great preacher and Bible commentator once said concerning the story of Sodom's celebration of homosexuality and its ultimate destruction, the first sign of the imminence of God's judgment is a judicial blindness – an inability to make right moral judgment. Citing in Genesis chapter 19 how the angelic visitors struck the perverse mob pressing on Lot's door with blindness, Phillips writes:
-
"'Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad,' said one of the ancient philosophers Not so! Whom God would destroy, He first makes blind. There comes a point in the rising tide of human wickedness, where God acts. In preparation [for His judgment] He blinds. The process takes various forms; in Pharaoh's case, God hardened his heart; in a coming day He will send a strong delusion so that they will believe 'the lie.' It is a dangerous thing to transgress with arrogance and persistence the laws of God." [1]
Not only is the Constitution based in eternal verities that come from the Judeo-Christian ethic, but neither is there any legal basis for redefining marriage as a union of two people regardless of their gender. The Constitution provides no right to same-sex marriage and even the U.S. Supreme Court has declared the states have a pre-eminent duty for determining marriage's meaning. Nevertheless, radical activist federal judges are saying that whenever the state defines the institution as one man and one woman, it's discriminatory.
Well, if it's discriminatory to circumscribe marriage traditionally, then it's just another form of discrimination to deny marriage to polygamists, polyamorists, incestuous couples, and even pedophiles. Are we to believe such couplings often practiced by pagan cultures of the past, which were either incinerated or reduced to ruins for their sexual deviance by God's own hand, are somehow now in the best interest of our great Republic? Will we legally visit and remove the ban on these too? With rulings such as these, there is nothing to prevent it.
I suggest it is both madness and blindness. And these new legal precedents will essentially destroy the nation if not reversed. America must reclaim its sexual sanity or lose its life.
This is not the kind of judicial blindness represented by Justice with the blindfold over her eyes and the scales in her hand. Instead, it makes a mockery of it. This instead is a visionless Justice, groping her way through the darkness of peril.Phillips writes, "If there is one thing that marks perversion, it is its deep-seated character. As a cancerous cell in a healthy body grows and spreads until it destroys the health of the whole body, so perverted lust entrenches itself and takes over the life." [2]
If this legal trend continues, we are now seeing the beginning of a new era – an era of judicial sightlessness – the beginning of our judgment as a nation – the start of our end.
This is not the fresh air of new freedom that we smell; it is the smoke of Sodom.
God save us.
Resources:
[1], [2], Phillips, John. Exploring Genesis. Neputune, New Jersey: Loizeaux Brothers, 1992, pg. 161.
© Rev. Mark H. Creech
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