By the Power Vested in Me...

Let me apologize up front for this novel of a blog but I had a lot of thoughts I needed to express. A good friend of mine posted a status update on Facebook over his happiness with the NH Governor’s willingness to sign the marriage equality bill once it is clearer about the separation of church and state. One of the responses to his update was:

“…church will always be a part of all states, as it states in the United States. In GOD we trust and he loves all no matter what…”

Of course I immediately started yelling "Separation of church and state! Separation of church and state!"

I’d like to take a minute and explain what the marriage equality movement is all about and help everyone understand what marriage is. If you look “marriage” up at www.m-w.com, you will see that marriage is “the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law”. (Props to Merriam Webster for having the second definition as “the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage”, hopefully soon the two definitions will be combined.)

So what does this definition tell us? Marriage is a LEGAL concept, not a religious one. One does not have to get married by a religious figure to be married but one DOES have to be married by someone who has been okayed by the government to perform marriage ceremonies in order for a couple to receive the legal benefits associated with the union. For a list of who can perform marriages in your state, click here. That’s why when you get divorced, you have to go before a judge, not some religious leader.

What is my point? If you get married in a church, for example, your clergyperson ends the ceremony with the phrase “By the power vested in me by the state (or commonwealth) of [insert state name here], I now pronounce you husband and wife”.

When the whole Prop 8 thing came out in CA, certain religious groups were very against marriage equality. I think a lot of that comes from them not wanting to perform same-sex marriages in their churches.

I don’t think the marriage equality movement is about forcing churches to marry same-sex couples. It is about giving the LGBT community the same LEGAL rights as heterosexual couples. The Lambda Legal Defense claims that heterosexuals get more than 1,400 federal and state legal rights when they get married including:

1. Joint parental rights of children

2. Joint adoption

3. Status as "next-of-kin" for hospital visits and medical decisions

4. Right to make a decision about the disposal of loved ones remains

5. Immigration and residency for partners from other countries

6. Crime victims recovery benefits

7. Domestic violence protection orders

8. Judicial protections and immunity

9. Automatic inheritance in the absence of a will

10. Public safety officers death benefits

11. Spousal veterans benefits

12. Social Security

13. Medicare

14. Joint filing of tax returns

15. Wrongful death benefits for surviving partner and children

16. Bereavement or sick leave to care for partner or children

17. Child support

18. Joint Insurance Plans

19. Tax credits including: Child tax credit, Hope, and lifetime learning credits

20. Deferred Compensation for pension and IRAs

21. Estate and gift tax benefits

22. Welfare and public assistance

23. Joint housing for elderly

24. Credit protection

25. Medical care for survivors and dependents of certain veterans

Now let’s address the separation of church and state issue. Amendment 1 of the Constitution states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” This is the Amendment that commonly gets referred to as ‘freedom of religion’ and indeed it states that but it also very clearly enumerates that laws should not be based on religion.

People always talk about “One nation under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God We Trust” on our currency. I hate to burst your bubble but the PoA was written in 1892 and “under God” was added in 1954. As for “In God We Trust”, I found this to be quit interesting from Wikipedia: “In God We Trust is the official motto of the United States and the U.S. state of Florida. The motto first appeared on a United States coin in 1864 during strong Christian sentiment emerging during the Civil War, but In God We Trust did not become the official U.S. national motto until after the passage of an Act of Congress in 1956. It is codified as federal law in the United States Code at 36 U.S. 302, which provides: "'In God we trust' is the national motto".

Two major additions of “God” to the government in the 1950s…hmmm…what else was going on in the 1950s that might have put pressure on some federal lawmakers? McCarthyism perhaps? Innocent people were being accused of being Communists during the heart of the Cold War. And it turns out Catholics, including the Kennedy’s, were some of McCarthy’s biggest supporters of his Commie allegations. I would love to hear others’ comments on the subject (who know more about US history than I do) but it seems to me that something was putting pressure on federal lawmakers during the ‘50s.

So where am I going with all of this? Marriage is a legal matter that should not be influenced in any way by religious beliefs. Because US laws apply to ALL citizens, regardless of gender, race/ethnicity, creed, or sexual orientation, members of the LGBT community should be allowed to marry. I think we should all forward this blog to our lawmakers to remind them of the issues at hand.

Interestingly, I Googled the title of my blog to verify some thoughts I had behind the phrase and I came across a very interesting piece by Rev. Don Southworth, a Unitarian Universalist minister, that explores the issues of marriage equality and religion, something the followers of theotherhilary know I would never attempt to do. If you are religious, you may be interested in reading what he has to say.