To listen to many of the religious right personalities, one would think that the SCOTUS had pretty much already declared state bans on marriage equality unconstitutional. The justices will hear arguments in the cases from the Sixth Circuit in late April (April 28, to be exact), and will hand down a decision by the end of June. And, most experts do agree that the justices will rule in favor of marriage equality. Nevertheless, it hasn't happened yet.
First, there is Liberty Counsel chairman Mat Staver, who is calling for massive civil disobedience when the SCOTUS rules for marriage equality.
From Right Wing Watch:
In a BarbWire column today, “Why A Bad Supreme Court Decision May Require Civil Disobedience,” Staver outlined his goal of bringing together “many thousands of individuals, agencies, charities, churches and schools” to “peacefully refuse to countenance a Supreme Court decision that violates not only our highest legal document, but the laws of Nature and Nature’s God.”
Staver claimed that such anti-gay activists would be following in the footsteps of Martin Luther King Jr. and Europeans who shielded Jews from the Nazi regime, adding that “perhaps we would see our culture step back from the brink of insanity, or perhaps we would suffer in the face of injustice.”
Of course, civil disobedience is not justified just because we disagree with a human law, but only when that law conflicts with a higher revealed or Natural Law. When he was jailed for violating a law used to stop him from protesting injustice, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail. “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God,” he argued. “An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.”
He went on to say: “I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all.’”
Sandy Rios says that religious right activists must
prepare for martyrdom.
Anti-gay pastor Rick Scarborough says that a number of the members of Congress plan to support his plan to go to jail rather than recognize a Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality.
From Right Wing Watch:
Anti-gay pastor Rick Scarborough, notorious for insisting that HIV/AIDS is God’s punishment for homosexuality, is working with Religious Right leader James Dobson, televangelist James Robison and conservative legal activist Mat Staver to recruit leading Religious Right activists and politicians to sign a pledge to commit civil disobedience in protest of a potential Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage.
A team of prominent Christian leaders is preparing a statement that will inform the public – including justices on the U.S. Supreme Court – that they will engage in civil disobedience rather than follow a ruling that establishes homosexual “marriage” in the United States.
Among those leading the charge is James Dobson of Family Talk Radio, Rick Scarborough of Vision America Action, Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel and James Robison of Life Today, whose brand new publication called The Stream reported on a recent telephone conference call discussing the issue.
Stream Executive Editor Jay Richards told WND there were about 20 other Christian leaders on the call. He said members of Congress have expressed an interest in the plan, which will be disclosed in the next few days in a statement regarding marriage and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Scarborough confirmed congressmen “are lining up to sign the document.”
“The undeniable case is that when same-sex “marriage’ becomes, declared by the Supreme Court, as the law of the land, they will begin to enforce it, like all civil rights laws.”
That is where the civil disobedience will loom large.
“We’re saying, before that, we will never obey that tyrannical law. It’s counter to natural law, and God’s higher law."
It's quite unclear how many of these folks are going to perform this civil disobedience. Members of Congress do not issue marriage licenses. And, church pastors and ministers will not be required to perform any same-sex marriages. So, who knows what they'll do? Hold their breath till they turn blue in protest? OK.
From JMG:
Since none of the members of Congress and none of these hate group leaders will have the responsibility of issuing marriage licenses, threats of civil disobedience are, of course, entirely laughable unless they plan to throw their bodies in front of county clerks' offices.
And, at Saturday’s Awakening conference, an annual Religious Right confab organized by Liberty Counsel, religious right activists warned that 'lawless' marriage equality 'undermines the whole nature of America.'
From Right Wing Watch:
Liberty Counsel attorney Harry Mihet, who was moderating the panel, echoed Scarborough’s dire warnings when he declared that there would be “no way to escape this issue” and that it might “in the near future” land anti-LGBT pastors in jail… just like Martin Luther King, Jr.
“We have to draw the line in the sand and stand firm on the truth of the Word, and not to shy away from a fight, not to quit, not to be silent, but to actually speak truth and love to a society that has a desperate need to hear it,” he said. “And there may come a time when you will have to lose your job because that’s what you’ve done. There may come a time in the near future when you have to lose your liberty and go to jail like Martin Luther King did.”
Brian Brown of the National Organization For Marriage compared a potential favorable SCOTUS decision for marriage equality to Dred Scott in a money beg.
From JMG:
The Dred Scott decision was wrong on so many levels that it’s difficult to cover them all in this email. But the most important thing to realize about the decision is that it ignored both natural law and the principles of the American founding to impose a political ideology on the country. Does that ring a bell for you with anything in the news today? Some people think that the US Supreme Court is the final arbiter of controversial topics — whether slavery or marriage — and we must accept whatever they decide.
We don’t.
My friends, we have an opportunity right now to act to avoid a Dred Scott decision on marriage. In a little over five weeks, the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case that could give us a legal definition of marriage that either complies with natural and moral law and the principles of the American founding, or like Dred Scott ignores those principles to impose a political ideology on the nation. What we do together between now and then is critical. Will you help us do everything we can to avoid a Dred Scott decision on marriage?
And, Tony Perkins is upset that the New England Patriots signed on to an amicus brief in support of marriage equality.
From Right Wing Watch:
“The New England Patriots didn't just deflate footballs — they’ve deflated Americans’ respect in professional sports,” Perkins said in his radio commentary this week.
Perkins’ assistant Craig James, a former Fox Sports football analyst, has said previously that the Patriots’ decision to join the amicus brief represents “Satan working on us.”
The New England Patriots didn't just deflate footballs — they've deflated Americans' respect in professional sports. Hi, I'm Tony Perkins with the Family Research Council in Washington. A month after winning the Super Bowl, the New England Patriots are stepping onto another turf: the marriage debate. This month, the Patriots didn't exactly live up to their name when they joined baseball's Tampa Bay Rays and San Francisco Giants in asking the Supreme Court to overturn the votes of millions of Americans who voted to uphold natural marriage. They argue that state laws protecting marriage "hamper employer efforts to recruit and retain the most talented workforce possible in these states." But if the latest polling is any indication, Americans aren't exactly fans of these teams' agenda. Now that people are starting to see the fallout of same-sex marriage, Rasmussen is finding that more people actually oppose same-sex marriage than support — 44% to 42%. So if the Patriots are trying to move the goal post on marriage, they might want to change their game plan.