Category Archives: Current Affairs

Conscience in Mississippi; Grandstanding In Alabama

A Circuit Clerk in Mississippi resigned her post rather than issue marriage licenses to same sex couples.
Linda Barnette said in a letter of resignation, effective on June 30, 2015, that

“The Supreme Court’s decision violates my core values as a Christian,” she wrote. “My final authority is the Bible. I cannot in all good conscience issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples under my name because the Bible clearly teaches that homosexuality is contrary to God’s plan and purpose for marriage and family. . . .”
Acquaintances said Barnette’s husband is a pastor who worked with Billy Graham Ministries for many years.
“I choose to obey God rather than man,” Barnette wrote.

Linda-Barnette
Linda Barnette, former Circuit Clerk of Grenada County, Mississippi.

I cite this letter to pay Barnette public respect. She had been Circuit Clerk, for 24 years. But she followed her conscience, peacefully but clearly, out the door.
That’s what Christians and Quakers are supposed to do.

Her witness is honorable. It is also rare. And it won’t slow the issuance of same sex marriage licenses in the state by much, if at all.

After Gay Marriage: No, The END Is NOT Near

Yes, the Same sex marriage forces in Massachusetts and elsewhere have deployed a secret weapon that is proving irresistible. And it does not involve locking opponents up, burning their churches, banning their books and movies — none of that paranoid silliness.

Even so, it’s real, and it works. I’ve seen it in operation close up, and am ready to to spill the beans:

It’s NORMALITY.

Legal same sex marriage expands the realm of day to day family life, with all its routines: juggling work & child care; homework, dentists, soccer, adolescence; fix the dinner and clean up that room. Plus the usual conflicts, which sometimes lead to divorce. Which is sad, but also NORMAL.

That’s what life is for legal same sex families. Flagrant, flamboyant, in-your-face NORMAL.

And over time, I haven’t seen anything that can beat it.

The “Hubris” of A “Judicial Putsch” — Dissents From The Same Sex Marriage Ruling

Together the four Supreme Court dissents make up a longer body of text than the decision. So for readability I am presenting them in three sizes:

First, the “Mini” or “Executive Summary” version, select quotes that add up to almost 4000 words.

Next, The Medium size, a fuller selection of the texts, which comes to almost 12,000 words.

And finally, at this link, one can read the dissents in their entirety, at about 19,000 words. (To find them, scroll down past the initial, “Opinion of the Court” section.)

Supreme-court-rainbow

Again, I have refrained from editorializing here, though as various commentators in the media have already said, that was not so easy. Many provocative statements and assertions are here, and they will rightly evoke extended discussion here and elsewhere.

The Dissents are presented in order of “rank”: Roberts, the Chief Justice, goes first, followed by Scalia, the longest-serving among the group; then Thomas, and finally the newbie Alito. That’s how they are presented here.

The Supreme Court Marriage Decision — Made Readable!

The Court, in this decision, holds same-sex couples may exercise the fundamental right to marry in all States. It follows that the Court also must hold—and it now does hold—that there is no lawful basis for a State to refuse to recognize a lawful same-sex marriage performed in another State on the ground of its same-sex character.

* * *

No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.

Nine Hometown Realities more important to me than trying to ban the Confederate flag

For me, I’d rather focus on realities over symbols. And all the items here are real right where I live; not stuff I see only on TV, a tablet screen, or a license plate. (Oh wait – I do see the flag on license plates. Whatever.)
. . . The reality that at least 40,000 mostly black voters were successfully deterred from voting in the 2014 NC election by racist vote suppression tactics — and that 40,000 was the margin that sent another New Confederate to the U. S. Senate. (And in this case, I actually did get arrested two summers ago, protesting NC’s vote suppression campaign, which is expanding.)