September 8, 2005 (AP)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced yesterday that he will veto a bill that would allow same-sex marriages in California.
Schwarzenegger said the legislation, given final approval Tuesday by lawmakers, would conflict with the intent of voters when they approved a ballot initiative five years ago. Proposition 22 prevents California from recognizing same-sex marriages from other states or countries.
“We cannot have a system where the people vote and the Legislature derails that vote,” the governor’s press secretary, Margita Thompson, said in a statement. “Out of respect for the will of the people, the governor will veto.”…
…The Republican governor had indicated that he would veto the bill, saying the debate over same-sex marriage should be decided by voters or the courts…
…The announcement dampened a celebratory mood among the bill’s supporters, who only the night before cheered, hugged and kissed as the state Assembly narrowly sent the bill to the governor’s desk.
The vote made it the first legislative body in the country to approve same-sex marriage. The state already gives couples many of the rights and duties of marriage if they register as domestic partners.
Massachusetts’ highest court ruled in 2003 that the state constitution guarantees same-sex couples the right to marry. The nation’s first state-sanctioned, same-sex weddings began taking place in May 2004.
Vermont began offering civil unions in 2000, after a ruling by the state’s Supreme Court. Earlier this year, Connecticut became the first state to approve civil unions without being forced by the courts.
Analysis:
The preceding article indicates a societal trend which violates God’s standards of what is right and moral, not to mention the divine definition of marriage. Rather than what is contended by the immoral today, Jesus, in commenting on marriage, quoted the Genesis account, “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’?” (Matthew 19:4-5).
Our society mirrors the ungodliness of the first century. The apostle Paul condemned the immoral. “Who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them” (Romans 1:32).
It may be in the future that all states will recognize same sex marriages. If so, it will not change the fundamental fact that the Almighty God of Heaven most certainly does not and will not!
