Proposition 8 Update
August 21st, 2010Prop 8 Update
By now all of you know that on Aug 4, Prop 8 was overturned by Judge Vaughn Walker and because I have been out of town and out of touch I have not commented until now.
On Nov 4, 2008 Prop 8 was approved by the vote of the people for the second time in California and the 31st straight time by the people in 30 states. The people of the United States have never once voted against traditional marriage. The only states that have struck down traditional marriage have been done so through the legal system and judicial activism. Never the people. That amounts to the will of very few people being imposed on the majority.
Dec 11, 2009 a lawsuit was brought against the State of California challenging Prop 8. Perry v. Schwarzenegger; a lawsuit in which the state refused to defend itself and jeopardize the votes of over 7 million people.
You heard me right, the State refused to defend itself and turned their back on over 7 million voters that supported traditional marriage.
Fortunately Protect Marriage stepped in to defend Prop 8.
Aug 4, 2010 Vaughn Walker overturned Prop 8.
At the end of his ruling on August 4, 2010, Chief Judge Vaughn Walker stated that Proposition 8 violated the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. This ruling would have allowed same-sex marriages to resume in the state of California as early as this month. On August 16, 2010, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the judgment stayed pending appeal.
He also stated that one of the reasons he rejected Prop 8 was because the people who voted in favor of it did so for moral and religious reasons.
DUH! Isn’t morality, a sense of right and wrong, the only reason we vote for anything. Whether someone gets their sense of right and wrong from religion or not is their own business.
Does this mean that the judge’s decision is amoral and irreligious and even anti-religious. Well that is biased if not straight up prejudice.
By ruling this way, is Judge Walker implying that gay marriage is amoral and irreligious. If those against Prop 8 want gay marriage for moral and/or religious reasons Judge Walker would have to reject that as well? Wouldn’t he?
The next step is for the 9th Circuit Court to decide whether to uphold Judge Walker’s decision or to overturn his decision.
Currently they have issued a ‘stay’ on the execution of his decision, which is why gay marriages are not currently taking place.
No matter what they do, the losing side will appeal their decision to the Supreme Court who will once and for all decide the case.
If the Supreme Court upholds Prop 8, we will be back to where we started but if they overturn Prop 8, that will open the door to overturn the votes of the people in 30 states who have all voted to affirm traditional marriage.
Gay marriage has been voted on 31 times, once in 30 states and twice in California and 31 consecutives times the people have voted to uphold traditional marriage.
It would be an unprecedented slap in the face to democracy to overturn the unanimous vote of 30 states.
Our support for traditional marriage has not changed. Our number one commitment is to what the word of God says about marriage which is summed up in the words of Jesus Himself in Matthew 19:4-6.
And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’ ? 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh.
Our commitment to traditional marriage has not changed. It is NOT and NEVER has been an expression of hate toward anyone, in particular gay people. I and our church love gay people. They attend and are welcome at our church. We have never and will never represent anything but love for them and everyone else.
The fate of Prop 8 is completely in the hands of the courts and could take a year or even longer to decide.
In the meantime we will pray and trust that the courts will do the right thing.
12 Responses to “Proposition 8 Update”
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im not ready to just throw in the towel, howeva i dont know where in the bible is mentioned u.s.a. and eventually could be our demise for the sodom &gomorahites to over run u.s. still we pray H.S. to restrain this evil while we reach out to lost ,hurting ,and dark world. And bring as many to repentance until that day comes. And I still love on em when i can.
You couldn’t have said that better! Thank you so much Miles for all you. Your faithfulness is so encouraging to all of us.
I read an article that did mention about judge walker possibly being homosexual himself. If so, don’t be surprised by what he said.
Miles,
Why couldn’t Protect Marriage produce any credible evidence to defend Prop. 8? The plaintiffs produced evidence that they were harmed by Prop 8 and the state had no rational basis to do so. In defense, Protect Marriage called just two witnesses, one actually agreeing that same-sex marriages are functionally equivalent to opposite sex marriages, particularly in raising children. And Protect Marriage produced no credible evidence demonstrating that same-sex marriage harms opposite sex couples. Judge Walker had no choice but to strike it down.
One would think that after spending nearly $40 million on the campaign, Prop. 8 supporters could put up a better fight when it counted most.
Word!!! So true! And love the pic of Brad with his beautiful wife
Howdy From Texas.
My wife of 30 years (this Christmas) and I were in San Diego north county when Prop 8 passed. Most knew this would not be the end of it. At the time we attended Bob Botsford’s Church (where we saw Miles preach for the first time {the first time for us} in the old Mike MacIntosh campus to campus Sunday service runs)… for several reasons.
So we feel we have a stake in what happens there on this issue. And I must say I disagree with one point Pastor Miles made. The battle belongs to the Lord. It is in his hands. And he is holding back to give his people the opportunity for action. Everything Pastor Miles said is true… only we need to mobilize in the prayer closet and organize prayer vigils. Fasting wouldn’t hurt. Doing some personal house cleaning is in order… meaning personal perspective checks… and turning from the sins of worldliness and sin and particularly lust…
This is about the sanctity of marriage (God’s provision for lust):
1 Corinthians 7:9 (KJV)
9 But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn (with lust).
Gay marriage is the last straw in society’s recent barrage of perversions and disregard and disrespect for the institution ordained and sanctified by God: marriage between one man and one woman for life.
Where we have failed in the heterosexual community in general and in the Body Christian in particular is that we have little or no moral high ground over the homosexual community. We have made a mockery of marriage for over four decades by our infidelity, divorce, remarriage, and no real thought or soul searching before jumping into marriage in the first place.
Since so many of us have failed… are we then to just throw in the towel and let the secular courts decide? If we do, we run the risk of the Master taking action (and that spells judgment any way you slice it). The recent downturn in our economy (to say the least) may well be one of many indicators that God is taking the reigns and it’s not going to be pretty.
Don’t panic. Pray. Repent. Put on the whole armor of God and get busy about the Master’s business. Listen to Pastor Miles’ teaching and opportunities so prominently mentioned on the Rock website… Do Something…
If any have fallen God can and does fix things. But we have to repent and set our course in his direction for our lives.
Proverbs 24:16 (NASB95)
16 For a righteous man (or woman) falls seven times, and rises again, But the wicked stumble in time of calamity.
1 John 1:9 (NASB95)
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
James 5:16b (NASB95)
16 …The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
2 Chronicles 7:14 (NASB95)
14 and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
In heavenly armor we’ll enter the land,
The battle belongs to the Lord.
No weapon that’s fashioned against us will stand,
The battle belongs to the Lord.
And we sing glory, honor, power and strength to the Lord,
We sing glory, honor, power and strength to the Lord.
When the power of darkness comes in like a flood,
The battle belongs to the Lord.
He’ll raise up a standard, the power of His blood,
The battle belongs to the Lord.
When Your enemy presses in hard, do not fear,
The battle belongs to the Lord.
Take courage, my friend, your redemption is near,
The battle belongs to the Lord.
The Battle Belongs to the Lord
by Jamie O. Collins
God bless.
There is a thing such as division of church and state. One should NOT be involved in the other. Gays want to get married, let them get married.
Miss Liz, I used to hold that same view. Then I realized the founding fathers of this nation did not place freedom above all else. If you read their writings as I have (wallbuilders.com) you will see the intent of the founding fathers was freedom of a moral people (as determined by how they measured up to Christian principles) was the people they were framing the Constitution of freedom for. In their writings you will find many of them admitting a tyranny under a despotic leader would be preferable to a nation of immorality set free to run amok.
I have many homosexual friends. One who was a witness at my wedding and his partner are celebs you would recognize if I mentioned their names. I do not advocate hatred of homosexuals or treating them with less respect than is due any human being created in the image of God. But the truth is still the truth and God is the Determiner of that truth. And he said homosexuality is evil and infidelity and divorce and sexual abuse and right on down the list.
If you will not bring your faith into the public arena, then double your spiritual efforts in the prayer closet if you are not already doing so. Pray for those like Pastor Miles who gets a lot of flack and heat from the opposition for taking a Christian stance publicly. Volunteer for helping him or the ministry in this area and be supportive of them.
Please do something.
It is completely and utterly wrong that you feel it ok to call people immoral for being gay. I myself am not gay, but I have friends who are gay, and I find this blog to be extremely offensive.
This is a very frustrating and controversial event. I respect Pastor Miles’ fight for this; however, there are some issues that I am having with it. When Prop. 8 passed in 2008, the one thing that frustrated me was that there seemed to be very little dialogue between churches and the gay community. It’s easy to assume that people will know where you’re coming from when you say yes to Prop. 8, but we cannot leave the discussion out. Another thing is that the title “Traditional Marriage” bothers me. There needs to be a better term because I know there are plenty of marriages that are not traditional: e.g., some couples have distance marriages, a woman being the sole financial provider where the man is the homemaker, etc. Yes, gay couples marrying is not traditional, but at the same time, there are other forms of marriages that are not “traditional.” Let’s keep it simple and define it as marriage between a man and woman.
During my undergrad, I was involved in cultural organizations that fought for justice for students of color, queer people of color, and so forth. I knew that I was in a dilemma because I was compromising my beliefs. Fortunately, I decided that I need to put God first and let people know that I believe marriage is a gift from God for a man and woman. However, I do not know if I can vote against same couple marriages, especially if they do not share these beliefs. I can only tell people that God is not pleased and share the love of God who can change the lifestyle, which is what I feel more churches need to do besides focusing only on political agendas. And why are we only focusing on gay marriage only? Many people assume that marriage is dying because of gay relationships, which I beg to differ. It is the high rates of divorce, infidelity/adultery, irreconcilable differences, and the porn industry that is destroying marriage in the United States. Yes sin is sin, but sexuality is a complex issue that needs to be discussed more in church. We need people to speak about having this lifestyle and having the strength to get out of it by the Grace of God. We need people to speak about living this lifestyle and struggling to get out of it. We need people to speak about how they left church because of their sexual identity. WE NEED DIALOGUE!!
Liz: Read your Amendments again, particularly the first one. Separation of church and state is written such that the government cannot impose a religion that everyone must follow and the government cannot prevent folks from following their religion. This issue has nothing to do with the government imposing one set religion on the people either by commission or omission of Proposition 8. It is however imposing the beliefs of a minority on the majority who voted for traditional marriage the way it has been defined by people of religion and people not of religion who voted on this issue 31 times across this great country. That is what is unconstitutional.
Miss Shanon, morality has no basis if not for the God who says adultery, murder, stealing, lying, and cheating are wrong. This same God says homosexuality is wrong. I too have gay friends and I have friends who lie who steal, may have committed adultery (and if you knew what all qualifies as adultery in the Bible you’d be certain of this) etc.
Are we to just give in to our failures and immoral temptations? Or are we to rise above it?
You just condemned a blog for wanting folks to rise above their failures and immoral temptations… And you took offense at people who love homosexuals for Jesus’ sake making us out to be like the haters who harm others or harass them rather than welcome them with open arms and yet with the loving concern that we point out the better way for them (as with the others I mentioned so please don’t think we are singling out gays only).
I could say your presumptions about this conversation and these people here are an offense to me and to us… but we rather love you and pray your heart is opened to the truth we all need. In Jesus’ name.