Gay Marriage in California

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Allow me to educate you. No rational person can criticize the Court's decision here without having at least a basic understanding of the governing California precedents. Anyone who condemns this ruling without having that understanding will be demonstrating a profound ignorance of -- and contempt for -- how the law works.

As the Court made clear, whether someone believes that "marriage" should include same-sex couples is completely irrelevant. It is equally irrelevant whether one believes that the U.S. Constitution can be read to require same-sex marriages. There is one issue, and only one issue, that matters here: are the provisions of the California State Constitution, in light of how they have been interpreted by that state's Supreme Court in prior decisions, violated by the exclusion of same-sex couples from the legal institution of "marriage"?

Equally misinformed will be anyone arguing that this is some sort of an example of judges "overriding" the democratic will of the people. The people of California, through their representatives in the State legislature, twice approved a bill to provide for the inclusion of same-sex couples in their "marriage" laws, but both times, the bill was vetoed by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who said when he vetoed it that he believed "it is up to the state Supreme Court" to decide the issue.

Polls have found substantial support for gay marriage in California, with dramatic trends toward favoring gay marriage. While there was a referendum passed in 2000 limiting marriage only to opposite-sex couples, five years later (in 2005), California's state legislature became the first in the country to enact a same-sex marriage law without a court order compelling them to do so. Thus, even leaving aside constitutional guarantees (which, in a constitutional republic, trump public opinion), this ruling is consistent with that state's democratic processes and public opinion, not a subversion of it.

Last month, the highest court in our nation's biggest state got it right: Excluding loving committed couples from marriage harms them and their families and helps no one. Exclusion also violates the constitution's command of equality for all. American values of fairness and inclusion really do matter and apply to gay and non-gay people alike.

When the anti-gay industry attacks judges for doing their job, they are attacking the independent judiciary that keeps us all free and equal. In the words of California's chief justice, the constitution is "the ultimate expression of the people's will." Judges monitor the safeguards we the people set forth in our constitution, protecting against trespasses by erring politicians.

In fact, the decision came from a judge's judge on a court's court with a reputation for being fair and cautious, indeed conservative. Six of the seven justices are Republican appointees, including the chief justice (originally named by Ronald Reagan). They ruled only after the legislature twice passed marriage bills that the governor vetoed, saying that the judges should decide.

But now the opponents of equality trot out their customary anti-courts rhetoric. They have no good answer to the court's findings: Marriage is so important that it should not be denied to same-sex couples. In truth, there is no good reason for withholding civil marriage licenses. Domestic partnership, civil union and other alternatives don't work to protect families. The families and love of gay Americans must not be relegated to "second-class citizenship."

The real issue for fair-minded people now is not that California's court did its job, but, rather, will we act to protect all families, or acquiesce in rolling back the clock?

Anti-gay forces are pushing an amendment to cement discrimination into the state constitution — something even the nation's most popular Republican, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, opposes. If Californians do have to vote this fall, it will be an informed vote. As happened in Massachusetts, once it becomes real, people see that gay couples don't use up all the marriage licenses and that there's enough marriage to share.

Californians are fair and will not take away the marriages joyously celebrated under law, with equality for all which begins TODAY at 5:01pm! Rejoice!

I found a Wonderful site on Isaiah!

http://www.isaiahexplained.com/

The site has free lessons on every chapter.
Very well done and in the author’s own voice.

Every Isaiah Chapter has the Analytical Commentary of Isaiah. Enjoy this personable verse-by-verse commentary of Isaiah by well-known Hebrew scholar Avraham Gileadi.

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“It is my testimony that this man has been brought forward and trained at this time to help those inside the Church into Isaiah, and those outside the Church, Jew and Gentile, through Isaiah into the Church” —Arthur Henry King, author, former BYU professor and London
Temple President.

“Dr. Gileadi has achieved a major breakthrough in the investigation of a book of such complexity and importance as the Book of Isaiah”—Professor David Noel Freedman, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

“Dr. Gileadi’s work will render obsolete almost all the speculations of Isaiah scholars over the last one hundred years . . . enabling scholarship to proceed along an entirely new line . . . opening new avenues of approach for others to follow”—Professor Roland K. Harrison, Wycliffe College, Toronto, Canada.

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“Dr. Gileadi’s translation [of the Book of Isaiah] is clear and smooth, allowing the reader to appreciate the power and beauty of Isaiah as conveyed in the Hebrew original”—Professor Herbert M. Wolf, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.

“Gileadi has uncovered an amazing message written in a divine code by the prophet–poet Isaiah. This will give comfort, hope, and joy to masses of people as they cope with the perplexing events now unfolding before their eyes”—Fenton Tobler, thirty years elementary school principle, Las Vegas, Nevada.

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