Somewhat incredibly, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Association of Evangelicals, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention, and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod have filed a joint amicus brief with the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, claiming that their opposition to same sex marriage has nothing to do with homosexuality (see my earlier post today about Christians being the biggest liars) despite all of the evidence to the contrary. According to these "godly churches," their support for a ban on same-sex marriage has nothing to do with homosexuality nor any intent to discriminate against the gay community. Think Progress looks at this incredible lie. Here are excerpts:
[T]hese religious groups argue that support for a ban on same-sex marriage has nothing to do with homosexuality nor any intent to discriminate against the gay community. They assert this claim over a dozen times throughout the brief. Here are some examples:
They hope to persuade the court that there is a valid reason for the state’s ban on same-sex marriage that isn’t just about discriminating against same-sex couples.
- “The accusation [of “ignorance or actual hostility”] is false and offensive. It is intended to suppress rational dialogue and civil conversation, to win by insult and intimidation rather than by persuasion, experience, and fact.”
- “Our support for the historic meaning of marriage arises from a positive vision of ‘the family’… and not from animosity toward anyone.”
- “Our teachings seldom focus on sexual orientation or homosexuality.”
Despite the claims in their briefs, these religious groups speak about homosexuality in conjunction with their views on marriage at every turn. The ERLC’s fall conference was called “The Gospel, Homosexuality, and the Future of Marriage” and Biblical teachings on homosexuality were at the core of its marriage conversations. The Vatican’s recent Humanum conference about marriage specifically justified its positions by rejecting the nature of homosexuality and highlighting the voices of ex-gays. Mormon leaders worry that marriage equality will lead to more violations of God’s law requiring chastity for gay people, not to mention they had to specify to volunteers campaigning for California’s Proposition 8 that “the less we refer to homosexuality, the better.”
The brief also argues that man-woman couples are superior for raising children, citing multiple studies that did not even assess same-sex parenting. Despite the irrelevance of these studies, the brief openly claims that limiting marriage to a man and a woman will somehow protect children from broken homes.
The last time the Supreme Court considered a same-sex marriage case, the Howard University School of Law’s Civil Rights Clinic pointed out that the arguments against same-sex marriage are identical to the arguments that were made against interracial marriage. Arguments that people of the same race “complement each other” better, that same-race parents are superior for children, that same-race families are less comparable to broken homes, and that sexual activity with the same race is “socially optimal behavior” all sound racist today. The religious organizations’ focus on heterosexual relations as superior encounters the same problem of degrading same-sex relations by inference.
The religious organizations simultaneously try to build a case that they, in fact, are victims as a result of these accusations of bigotry.
As the largest Christian denominations in the country are taking what may be their final stands against marriage equality, it is now that much harder for them to convince judges that they aren’t simply trying to limit the rights of same-sex families.
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