In a decision likely to stoke the contentious election-year debate over same-sex marriage, the New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled that state lawmakers must provide the rights and benefits of marriage to gay and lesbian couples.
The high court on Wednesday gave legislators six months to either change state marriage laws to include same-sex couples, or come up with another mechanism, such as civil unions, that would provide the same protections and benefits.
The court’s vote was 4-to-3. But the ruling was more strongly in favor of same-sex marriage than that split would indicate. The three dissenting justices argued the court should have extended full marriage rights to homosexuals, without kicking the issue back to legislators…
…Opponents of same-sex marriage contend the New Jersey decision could have a national impact because the state imposes no residency requirements for people seeking marriage. In essence, it could open the door for gay and lesbian couples from other states to marry in New Jersey and challenge laws against same-sex marriage in their own states.
The gay marriage debate intensified in 2004 when Massachusetts became the first and only state to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry. The state does not allow nonresidents to marry there, however.
Rose Arce, CNN
Analysis:
We have time and again shown that the scriptures reveal homosexuality to be a sin and an abomination before God (cf. Levitcus 18:22; 20:13; Rom. 1:26-28).
We have likewise pointed out that it is God, who established the marriage union, who defines its constituent parts. If God said that a “man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24), then He defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Whatever men say does not change what marriage truly is.
What I may not have emphasized is how sad it is for individuals to define themselves and their lives by their sexual preferences. I can understand someone identifying themselves as a Christian, a parent, an American, or even by their ethnicity. What I can’t understand is defining oneself by their sexual activity. It is a strong indication of just how perverted and obsessed such individuals have become. When someone calls himself an alcoholic it is because alcohol has taken control, likewise a drug addict, glutton or adulterer. When an individual identifies himself as a homosexual, he is not describing a lifestyle, but a sexual act. Truly God has given “them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness…” (Rom. 1:28-29).
