Here in New Jersey where I live and work, the state legislature, controlled by Democrats, has put same-sex marriage at the top of its agenda. We already have same-sex civil unions, thanks to a legislative response to an activist state supreme court ruling several years ago. Governor Chris Christie—who sent a rather mixed message the other day when he nominated the first-ever openly gay state supreme court justice, the Republican mayor of Chatham—has said he would veto a same-sex marriage bill. And it doesn’t look like the votes would be there to override his veto. Now Christie has called for putting the question to the people in a constitutional referendum, but it sure doesn’t seem likely that this legislature will go for that. (In New Jersey, a constitutional amendment gets on the ballot via the legislature, not by petition. Either three-fifths of each house, acting once, or simple majorities in each house, acting in two consecutive annual sessions, need to vote to propose any amendment to the people.)
Meanwhile, last Friday the seven Catholic bishops in the state (for the six geographic dioceses and for the Syriac Catholic diocese) issued a statement strongly defending the conjugal understanding of marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman:
Marriage as a union of a man and a woman has its roots in natural law. Throughout all of human history marriage has been held to be a union of man and woman. Marriage as a union of man and woman existed long before any nation, religion or law was established. Marriage which unites mothers and fathers in the work of childrearing is the foundation of the family, and the family is the basic unit of society.Sadly, the institution of marriage is being challenged by a society so concerned with individual freedom that some view marriage as a temporary or disposable convenience. Now, there is even an attempt in the New Jersey Legislature to pass a law that would change the very definition of marriage as a union of one man and one woman.
As citizens, we must protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Same-sex unions may represent a new and a different type of institution, but it is not marriage and should not be treated as marriage.
Read the rest here .
