Social Norms Change Religious Labels

Since the founding of the United States on July 2, 1776, marriage has been the legal union between a man and a woman. However, with the ongoing challenges to Proposition 8, the above 224 year old definition of marriage is as close as it has ever been to seeing a legal change. In response to California's ban on same-sex marriage, the opposition is trying to overturn Proposition 8, which was passed by a majority of the state's voters.

On January 21, 2010, Maura Bolan of The Los Angeles Times reported on the current activities of this court case of which focus was on the involvement of religion. At this point the challengers are arguing that religious institutions, such as the Catholic and Mormon churches, engaged in the promotion of the discrimination of gays prior to the bill being voted upon. The argument is that the specifically named religious institutions have presented specific religious memos of religious officials as evidence for the discrimination. With evidence of internal religious communications being introduced, the defense argues that it is only the expression of religious bigotry.

With the First Amendment being that Congress cannot pass any laws for the establishment of religion nor interfere with the exercise of religion, I am personally perplexed with the continuance of this case from the grounds of which the defense is arguing. From the article we see that the opposition is crying for discrimination, from which these institutions influenced the outcome of the ban. With that said, I am having a very difficult time seeing the ban on gay marriage as being an establishment of religion nor do I see the religious rights of gays being taken away. If the Constitution's definition did not specify that marriage was in between one man and one woman, then I would say we have a problem of the freedom to exercise. If the particular case of California's ban on gay marriage hinged upon its legislation being heeded by the above-named religious institutions, perhaps there may be a case of establishment. However, the state of California does not endorse Catholicism or Mormonism. These institutions were not the vote for the legislation, the people were. No matter how influential an entity may be, within legal bounds, the vote comes down to the people and it was the voters of California that passed the ban, not religious institutions.

It seems to me that if same-sex marriage is to be Constitutional, then the definition of marriage itself must be changed. However, with the changing of the definition of marriage, this legislation would perhaps lead to a slippery slope. I could only imagine that many court cases such as those that deal with polygamy, incest or statutory rape would reopen. We could take away the use of marriage altogether, however not only would the above issues again be reexamined, but the challengers of the ban are not asking for such a measure. They want the same privileges under the same conditions that a man and woman currently have through marriage. In the end, I again do not see the case as infringing upon the First Amendment, but rather it is a case of social norms from which the likes of banning polygamy were also established.