Election Issues Today

California Prop 8 Ignores Civil Contract Law

Marriage is a civil contract, sanctioned by the State, recognized by other States, and by other nations of the World.

Couples do not enter into a contract with God; they enter into a contract with each other.  God doesn’t “join” any persons together.  Priests and ministers are allowed to “officiate” in the United States because of traditions developed hundreds of years ago, when churches and synagogues ruled the daily affairs of the masses.

The various States of the United States issue marriage “licenses” to couples who are entering into a “contract” by which they agree to accept responsibilities and debts of the other party, agree to share assets and liabilities, acknowledge rights of each party to inherit and act in the other party’s interest.

The contract is executed upon the marriage license document by affixing of signatures by the contracting parties and witnesses who attest to the identities of the signatories.  In some States, the equivalent of a notary public is required, e.g, a judge or elected official.  In some States, a minister, by statute or constitution, is authorized to officiate.  Even then, witnesses are required to attest to the identity of the parties.  In some States, the parties to the marriage contract merely have to sign the license in front of a witness, who can be anybody.  The marriage contract is legalized by the signatures of the parties involved.   There need be no judge, minister or any other “officiating” person or ceremony.  That is how the Montana Constitution reads. (Montana Codes Annotated 40-1-301 “if no individual acting alone solemnized the marriage, a party to the marriage shall complete the marriage certificate form and forward it to the clerk of the district court. “)

The marriage contract is a civil right.  There should be no rights of religious groups or beliefs that override the rights of individuals to enter into a marriage contract.  For voters to impose their own religious beliefs upon the civil rights of any individual citizen of the United States should be illegal and therefore the results of Proposition 8 should be promptly overturned by the California Court System.

The United States seems to be divided into two strong factions.

On the one hand are those who refer to themselves as “progressive,” and their political opinions frequently mimic their social opinions as well. This faction endorses interracial marriages and equal rights for all, regardless of race, national origin, gender, or sexual orientation.

The other faction uses religious and faith-based values to determine their political and social stances, and also seeks to impose those values or beliefs on the “progressive” faction.

Now tell me, does not the religious right, the ultra-conservative Christian and Jewish factions, use the same arguments as the Islamic mullahs who would impose “Sharia*” upon their populations?   Why do the most conservative of the Christian and Jewish faiths not see that they have much in common with the Islamic mullahs?  Why do they not see that what they seek to impose on others is a violation of the tenets of our Constitutional guarantees of “separation of church and state”?

*Sharia law is the instrument by which Political Islam seeks to control the Muslim world. The Sharia should be opposed for its imposition of theocracy over democracy, its abuse of human rights, its institutionalized discrimination, its denial of human dignity and individual autonomy, its punishment of alternative lifestyle choices, and for the severity of its punishments.

Our own freedom to practice what we believe is limited to the point at which they impair the exercise of that same freedom by others. I am so disappointed in the otherwise progressive voters of California.

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