Remember the separation of church and state?
Remember the principle of the separation of church and state? The Europeans who settled North America thought that this was important, especially in light of religious persecution they endured in England, where the head of the state was also the head of the church, and religious ideals were used to influence governmental decisions, policies and punishments.
Though it is talked about still as being a fundamental principle for Western style democracy, it is unfortunately still a condition not yet achieved.
For many years individuals and organizations have used the government to force their religious beliefs onto other people that may not share or welcome those beliefs. Issues of same-sex marriage, drug prohibition and other “vices” were often restricted in some way because of these beliefs.
And it continues to this day.
In the last few years California has had some resolutions to allow for same-sex marriage. Groups from all sides with different agendas made their voice heard through various means. One of these groups included churches.
LDS Church wades into California traditional marriage case
“The LDS Church has joined with several California religious groups to file a friend-of-the-court brief in defense of Proposition 22, a law passed in 1999 that defined marriage as between a man and a woman.”
In this case, the LDS church is using the government to force their religious belief; that marriage should be between a man and woman; onto other people not of their own faith. This goes against the principle of the separation of church and state.
I find it to be somewhat hypocritical of the LDS Church to do this, after all, they faced much religious persecution during their formative years for their practice of plural marriage, many times resulting in the lynching and murder of it’s members, including it’s founder Joseph Smith. They eventually traveled west to Utah so they could live in peace and have religious freedom, which differed from the religious beliefs and practices of the mainly Protestant populous with which they were surrounded.
That is fine; they can choose how they wanted to live. What if at that time though they had pushed for legislation that would force all married men to have at least 2 wives? Would that have been fair to people that weren’t of their faith, or had conflicting religious beliefs? Of course not. That is no different than pushing their current religious belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman to people that don’t share their same beliefs.
While a church and its members certainly are free to believe and act as they wish provided that they don’t harm other people, they should not use the strong arm of the government to push those beliefs onto others through legislation.
Marriage between one man and one woman IS a Christian belief, and should not be forced upon people that don’t adhere to that faith, or to any faith.
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