Another article on the same Meme
Far from their 1967 argument that "every type of discrimination" must be "eradicated," America's Catholic bishops are now arguing that "the federal government is not constitutionally bound by, and should not be held hostage to, redefinitions of marriage that are adopted in some states."
The bishops have gone from making a strong moral and religious case for ending interracial marriage bans in the 1960s to making a largely political argument in 2013
In 1967, ….Catholic bishops and archbishops …. [argued] to the Supreme Court that interracial bans on marriage were a violation to the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees equal protection of the laws. The group also argued the bans violated the constitutional "right of privacy" and "freedom to marry," as well as being an "invalid restriction on the free exercise of religion.
In 1967, they argued in favor of aggressive action to "overcome and eradicate" discrimination, writing, "These bishops, as pastors of their respective dioceses, are committed to the proposition that 'with regard to the fundamental rights of the person, every type of discrimination, whether social or cultural, whether based on sex, race, color, social condition, language or religion, is to be overcome and eradicated as contrary to God's intent.'"
As part of that argument, the bishops noted, "It must be emphasized that the teachings or laws of some of the churches or religious bodies in the United States even exclude specifically any restriction on marriage based upon racial considerations." In fact, the bishops spent a significant part of their argument detailing how interracial marriage bans violated "that 'free exercise of religion' guaranteed to the individual by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution."
and yet now they do an 180 degree about turn
With regards to churches that, in 2013, allow same-sex couples to marry, today's bishops argue that such considerations are irrelevant:
Proposition 8 is not rendered invalid because some of its supporters were informed by religious or moral considerations. Many, if not most, of the significant social and political movements in our Nation's history were based on precisely such considerations. Moreover, the argument to redefine marriage to include the union of persons of the same sex is similarly based on a combination of religious and moral considerations (albeit ones that are, in our view, flawed). As is well established in this Court's precedent, the coincidence of law and morality, or law and religious teaching, does not detract from the rationality of a law.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/bishops-who-once-fought-for-inclusive-marriage-laws-fight-to
|