The US is a christian nation, therefore the definition of marriage should be defined by the christian church.
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The United States can't use the Christian definition because that would require respecting an establishment of religion, which is banned by the First Amendment. ]
The 1st amendment is freedom to religion, not freedom from religion.
32 comments
Nice bumper sticker slogan , ass, but the first amendment was designed to keep ideas like that as far away from government as possible.
Which Christian church? The FLDS, where husbands can have several wives, or the Metropolitan Community Church, which has been celebrating same-sex relationships since before Stonewall?
The First Amendment says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press..." So: 1) Freedom to practise any religion is not the same as the freedom just to practise Christianity; and 2) if you deny people the right from freedom of religion, you prohibit the freedom of speech and of the press, thus violating the First Amendment; and 3) to establish that the First Amendment did not guarantee freedom from religion, you would have to pass a law saying that people had to practise a religion, and this being a law respecting the establishment of religion, would again violate the First Amendment.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion"
So your version of Christianity can't hold precedence over my version of Judaism. Neither can my form of Judaism hold precedence over your version of Christianity. All the legal arguments over same-sex marriage must be conducted without appealing to a particular religion.
"or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"
Not to mention, freedom of religion is meaningless if you can't opt out of religion.
If freedom of religion doesn't mean freedom from religion, then freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom from speech.
The 1st amendment is freedom to religion, not freedom from religion.
Actually, it's freedom of religion, not to religion.
The US is a christian nation...
Except it's not as defined by the 1st Amendment and the Treaty of Tripoli.
...therefore the definition of marriage should be defined by the christian church.
But the church, any church, has no direct bearing on US law which has defined marriage as a legal contract entered into by two consenting adults.
You're thinking of matrimony which is a religious sacrament. Feel free to define matrimony as your church sees fit.
The 1st amendment is freedom to religion, not freedom from religion.
1) The Bill of Rights applies to the individual as well as to the nation as a whole.from religion is a choice inherent in freedom of religion.
the first amendment's language is remarkably plain; unusually so, by the standards of the U.S. constitution. what's more, we've got two centuries' worth of legal exposition on it by various lawyers and justices, working to parse out what effect it ought to have in practice and why. there is absolutely NO excuse for any U.S. citizen (over the age of five, or so) to misunderstand it this badly. NONE.
The 1st amendment is freedom to religion, not freedom from religion.
The 1st Amendment is neither. It's freedom from government . It defines what the government is not allowed to do. It's not allowed to do anything that has no secular purpose and it's not allowed to either advance or inhibit religion. There's nothing in there (or anywhere else in the Constitution) that says anything about Christianity. If you want to ban same-sex marriage, you need to find some secular reason for it. It's not enough to say "my Baptist pastor said it was wrong".
Uh...sorry I have to 'splain it to you right from the start, but..... I think you haven't figured out yet that if you are forced to choose one of a number of ways of thinking, all of which are contrary to your own beliefs, that isn't FREEDOM, you self-righteous religion-pushing constitution-revisionist MORON!!! I mean this kindly in all the spirit of civil discourse, and with all the respect due to your opinions .....hahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
Ok, so why don't all of you "Christians" get together and decide:
Get back with us when all of you "Christians" agree, ok?
"The US is a christian nation, therefore the definition of marriage should be defined by the christian church."
Which Christian church? Even in the "no freedom from religion" model you advance, you need an absolutely consistent and fixed definition that every Christian church agrees to. Including the First Christian Church of Holy Sodomy and Scissoring, which I need only found to invoke a Christian definition of marriage that includes same-sex couples.
Sure, some might say that's not a true Christian church, but then that would lead to no "freedom to religion" either.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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