Religion & Law

"Churches weigh in on same-sex marriage"

By Michael Perry

[HT:  Maggie Gallagher.]

San Francisco Chronicle
February 18, 2008

Churches weigh in on same-sex marriage
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer                                                                  

The legal battle over same-sex marriage in California is also a clash of religions.

As the state Supreme Court prepares for a three-hour hearing March 4 on the constitutionality of a state law allowing only opposite-sex couples to marry, the justices have been flooded with written arguments from advocates on both sides - including two large contingents of religious organizations with sharply differing views.

On one side are the Mormon church, the California Catholic Conference, the National Association of Evangelicals and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations. They describe marriage between a man and a woman as "the lifeblood of community, society and the state" and say any attempt by the courts to change that would create "deep tensions between civil and religious understandings of that institution."

On the other side are the Unitarians, the United Church of Christ, the Union for Reform Judaism, the Soka Gakkai branch of Buddhism, and dissident groups of Mormons, Catholics and Muslims. Saying their faiths and a wide range of historical traditions honor same-sex unions, they argue that the current law puts the state's stamp of approval on "the religious orthodoxy of some sects concerning who may marry."

Those groups won't be represented at next month's oral arguments, when the court will hear from the parties in the case: same-sex couples and the city of San Francisco, challenging the marriage law, and the attorney general's and governor's offices, defending the law. Also participating will be lawyers seeking to intervene on behalf of two organizations opposing gay rights.

The religious groups' written arguments, known as friend-of-the-court briefs, play the less-visible but important role of advising the justices how their ruling could affect society. Courts at all levels sometimes cite those arguments to buttress their legal reasoning.

Fifty such briefs have been filed in this case, representing hundreds of organizations and individuals - professional associations of psychologists and anthropologists, city and county governments, law professors, businesses, civil rights organizations, one former state Supreme Court justice, and advocates of "alternatives to homosexuality."

The religious coalitions have enlisted legal heavyweights: for opponents of same-sex marriage, Kenneth Starr, the former U.S. solicitor general, federal judge and impeachment prosecutor of former President Bill Clinton; and for their adversaries, Raoul Kennedy, a prominent San Francisco attorney.

Full post as published by Mirror of Justice on February 22, 2008 (boomark / email).