The big US Supreme Court ruling in favor of nationwide marriage equality on Friday was the subject of most of the Sunday news shows. GOP presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Bobby Jindal are both still very upset and unhappy with the Supreme Court. Below the fold is the discussion.
Mike Huckabee says that Christians will disobey an 'unjust' marriage equality law. I'm not exactly sure what that means. Here he is on ABC News’ This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
From Towleroad:
Huckabee said that SCOTUS ruled for “marriage redefinition” and warned that people of faith would now face discrimination:
“This case wasn’t so much about a matter of marriage equality, it was marriage redefinition…and I think people have to say if you’re going to have a new celebration that you’re not going to discriminate may I ask are we going to now discriminate against people of conscience, people of faith who may disagree with this ruling. Are they going to be forced, either out of business, like the florist, the caterers, the photographers, like the CEO of Mozilla who was run out of his job because of a personal contribution to support a proposition in California that actually won on the ballot? Are we gonna trade one level of what’s called discrimination for a new level of discrimination against people of faith?”
When Stephanopoulos asked him if he is calling for civil disobedience, Huckabee said that many religious people wouldn’t have a choice and cited MLK Jr’s writing as justification for refusals to obey orders that they marry gay couples:
“I don’t think a lot of pastors and Christian schools are going to have a choice. They’re either going to follow God, their conscience, and what they truly believe the scripture teaches them, or they will follow civil law. They’ll go the path of Dr. Martin Luther King, who in his brilliant essay, the Letters from a Birmingham Jail reminded us — based on what St. Augustine said — that an unjust law is no law at all. And I do think we’re going to see a lot of pastors who will have to make this tough decision. You’re going to see it on the part of Christian business owners, you’ll see it on the part of Christian university presidents, Christian school administrators.”
Bobby Jindal appeared on
Meet The Press this morning, and he told Chuck Todd that it was offensive to compare and equate marriage equality and interracial marriage opposition.
From Towleroad:
On Sunday’s Meet the Press, host Chuck Todd interviewed Louisiana Governor and Republican Presidential hopeful Bobby Jindal about his views on the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage.
Todd focused on whether opposition to same-sex marriage can be equated to past opposition to interracial marriage. Specifically, he referenced President Harry Truman’s opposition to interracial marriage, opposition that was rooted in his interpretation of the Bible, and asked whether Jindal was similarly “comfortable using religion as a way to defend [his] position on marriage?”
Meanwhile, US Senator Lindsey Graham says that the GOP should stop fighting marriage equality.
From The Advocate:
Speaking with Chuck Todd on NBC’s Meet the Press today, Graham acknowledged the near-impossibility of such an amendment ever attaining the necessary amount of votes to be ratified in today’s Congress.
“I don’t believe there is any chance for a constitutional amendment defining marriage between one man and one woman to get two-thirds votes in the House and the Senate, and be ratified by three-fourths of the states,” acknowledged Graham.
Todd asked Graham to weigh in on the GOP’s 2012 party platform, which included support for a constitutional amendment that would categorically outlaw same-sex marriage. (This year, fellow Republican presidential hopefuls Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, and Mike Huckabee have advocated for such an amendment.)
“I agree with Jeb,” said Graham, referring to rival Republican candidate Jeb Bush. “In my view you can put it in the platform, but it will, in my view, hurt us in 2016, because it’s a process that’s not going to bear fruit of those who believe that opposing same-sex marriage is part of their faith. So no, I would not engage in the constitutional amendment process as a party going into 2016.”