The Supreme Court has exceeded its authority
The legendary National Lampoon magazine once featured a hilarious article by Henry Beard (available in book form) called "The Law of the Jungle." In essence, it presented itself as a scholarly article on the common law and legal precidents of the Animal Kingdom, using the same style, format and language that American and British legal textbooks and law journal articles use.
It was wonderful satire. If you know a lawyer, get it for him or for her. It will be appreciated.
Anyway, the article pointed out that there was, in fact, no separate legal code for marine animals. Rather, the Law of the Air applied to the oceans and the creatures therein, who were said by a legal fiction to "fly in the salten sky."
It occurred to me last night as I was thinking about yesterday's Supreme Court abomination redefining marriage and setting aside two thousand years of precedent and established legal reasoning that it, too, is a legal fiction. Marriage, after all, is a pre-political institution. There was marriage long, long before there were governments- and governments therefore lack the authority to redefine it.
Theologically, of course, marriage is a divine institution. It is clearly defined as being between a man and a woman by both Testaments. So the same conclusion applies theologically: the Supreme Court- or any other human authority- simply lacks the power to redefine it.
Same-sex "marriage-" whether or not blessed by SCOTUS- is a legal fiction. If gays and lesbians want to pretend to be married, and if the courts and the government want to pretend that men can marry men and women can marry women, that's up to them.
But we don't have to go along. As Christians- or even simply as people of common sense- we simply need to recognize the fact that the Supreme Court has exceeded its authority here. Neither nature nor divine institutions are subject to judicial review, Marbury v. Madison or not.
Marriage in the United States remains today exactly what it was two days ago: the lifelong union of one man and one woman. And it always will, no matter what kind of make-believe games Anthony Kennedy et al want to play.
It was wonderful satire. If you know a lawyer, get it for him or for her. It will be appreciated.
Anyway, the article pointed out that there was, in fact, no separate legal code for marine animals. Rather, the Law of the Air applied to the oceans and the creatures therein, who were said by a legal fiction to "fly in the salten sky."
It occurred to me last night as I was thinking about yesterday's Supreme Court abomination redefining marriage and setting aside two thousand years of precedent and established legal reasoning that it, too, is a legal fiction. Marriage, after all, is a pre-political institution. There was marriage long, long before there were governments- and governments therefore lack the authority to redefine it.
Theologically, of course, marriage is a divine institution. It is clearly defined as being between a man and a woman by both Testaments. So the same conclusion applies theologically: the Supreme Court- or any other human authority- simply lacks the power to redefine it.
Same-sex "marriage-" whether or not blessed by SCOTUS- is a legal fiction. If gays and lesbians want to pretend to be married, and if the courts and the government want to pretend that men can marry men and women can marry women, that's up to them.
But we don't have to go along. As Christians- or even simply as people of common sense- we simply need to recognize the fact that the Supreme Court has exceeded its authority here. Neither nature nor divine institutions are subject to judicial review, Marbury v. Madison or not.
Marriage in the United States remains today exactly what it was two days ago: the lifelong union of one man and one woman. And it always will, no matter what kind of make-believe games Anthony Kennedy et al want to play.
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