Comment Got any marshmallows? (Score 2) 128
Next time they tell you that you'll set your computer on fire if you overclock, you better believe them.
Precisely how does it discriminate against children to limit marriage status to heterosexuals? Children can still inherit from their parents. Children can still be loved by them. Frankly, the state has no purpose - no skin in the game, if marriage is just about romantic feelings or sexual acts. Everything that the state has an interest in pertaining to whether a couple stays together or not (and thereby incentivizing it through the promotion of marital status) has to do with the offspring of that couple. There is no scientifically sound evidence that homosexuals raising children do not harm those children. The only studies that conclude otherwise have been convenience samples, snowball samples or a combination of both and those studies are subject to a number of biases that render them unreliable and likely invalid - social desirability bias, ascertainment (sampling) bias - including self-selection bias, pre-screening bias and geographic sampling bias (for instance, including only subjects in a small urban area).
Everything that we know about child rearing and homosexual relationships (particularly male-male relationships) stand against the concept that children are just as well off being raised by homosexuals. Homosexual relationships are less stable (both MSM and FSF) which is a huge factor for the mental health of children, homosexual relationships are often if not usually polyamorous, they lack role models of the opposite sex, children raised by same-sex couples are FAR more likely to choose that lifestyle for themselves (which itself lends one to think that homosexuality is more culture than biology) and if those children become homosexual they will be far more likely to engage in risky sexual practices, abuse drugs, be at risk of suicide and other psychological issues, have STDs and have a shortened lifespan (for instance, when you include the various risk factors - suicide, drug use, STDs, depression and anxiety, etc, the average lifespan of the male homosexual is reduced by about 20 years as compared with lifespan of a heterosexual (which is roughly equivalent to the years lost from being BOTH a lifelong smoker (10 years lost) and being morbidly obese with a BMI >45 (8-13 years lost)).
We need to look at the actual science - not just go blindly into making a dramatic societal change without knowing the consequences.
If marriage is only about the romantic feelings or sexual acts between two consenting adults then why the hell is the government involved in it at all? If it is about providing stability for child rearing, then (setting aside no-fault divorce for the moment) there's an argument to be had to limiting marriage to a man and a woman as they are the only pair that can naturally produce children and there is absolutely no valid scientific evidence that homosexuals provide parenting on par with that of heterosexual couples.
Then one may say "What about people who are infertile? People too old to reproduce? etc." The answer to that is that the law doesn't have to have a perfect fit - only a rational one.
Of course the argument has been made that homosexual couples are fine parents, but in every single instance where there has been a study of homosexual parenting, the study was based on a convenience sample (where the researcher advertised in homosexual advocacy media or with advocacy groups for his study sample) or it was a snow-ball sample (where participants in the study recruited more participants) or a combination of the two. Why? Because it is nearly impossible to obtain a statistically significant sample size of stable homosexual relationships with children using a random population study because there simply aren't enough of that sub-group available for sampling purposes (Less than 1% of US households are homosexual couples, only 1/5 of those have children in them, and obviously, a smaller percentage have been together for the life of the child, like a stable marriage relationship). Since only 0.18% of US households are led by homosexual couples with children, it is inherently difficult and cost prohibitive to conduct a randomized population study that uses objective criterion to evaluate the effects of being raised by homosexual parents and instead what we see is studies conducted by self-proclaimed gay activists using methodologies that will inherently bias their studies in the direction they prefer.
What's wrong with convenience or snow-ball sampling? They're inherently biased and the bias cannot be corrected for. For instance, in a couple of studies on homosexual concordance among monozygotic twins, the convenience samples found rates of concordance between 47-52% for homosexuality among monozygotic twins. However, when researchers did a random population study based on the Australian Twin Registry, they found a concordance rate of 11% among monozygotic twins and 6% for dizygotic twins (interestingly, adopted siblings, who shared no genetic material also had 6% concordance rate for homosexuality). The previous researcher's reliance on a convenience sample create the likelihood of “ascertainment bias”. In the words of the researchers, “twins deciding whether to participate in a study clearly related to homosexuality probably considered the sexual orientation of their co-twins before agreeing to participate”. The study participants knew what population group was being studied, knew what was being studied and had an interest in the findings of the study but somehow were expected to be completely unbiased in coming forward for the study and and objective in providing information to the researchers (as opposed to engaging in social desirability bias (when research subjects respond in ways that present themselves and their families in the most desirable light possible) - it's absolute folly to think that the studies on child rearing by homosexuals reflect anything other than the bias of the researchers and their subjects. There is no sound science showing otherwise.
So what we are left with is making a fundamental shift in society based on no real information - just a vague sense that society should somehow have some role in recognizing the romantic feelings or sexual acts of two people - something that the law determined years ago was an entirely private matter (See Griswold v. Conn.).
I don't see how either of the articles you point to say that the claims made in the Washington Times article are debunked - they support what was claimed. The second article you cite explains very clearly that the City Attorney stated that if the pastor refused to perform a same-sex marriage that he would be in violation of the ordinance - violation of the ordinance is a criminal misdemeanor with up to 6 months of jail time for each offense and up to a $1,000.00 fine for each offense. That someone wants to earn a living through the performance of a religious act does not strip the act of its religious nature.
Catholics, for instance, view marriage as a sacrament and The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines the sacraments as "efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions."
The apostle Paul wrote about earning a living through the spreading the gospel:
"Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink the milk? . . . Don't you know that those who serve in the temple get their food from the temple, and that those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel. " (1 Corinthians 9:7,13-14 - for the larger context see 9:1-14)
"There here we have it. Indiana, as well as Arizona’s RFRAs are very similar to the Federal RFRA."
"There here we have it. Indiana, as well as Arizona’s RFRAs are very similar to the Federal RFRA."
Good we don't want any tea-baggy cry babies here anyway
And the rest of the country doesn't want you so-called "progressive" ideological bigots and fascists either.
Scientists will study your brain to learn more about your distant cousin, Man.
