Comments on: Church Says No To Witches: Is This Even News?

By: contrarian

contrarian — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:59:09 +0000

“Churches have a right to define marriage in whatever way they want - but they don’t have a right to define it for the rest of the world. I believe that it IS discrimination if the government - which is not supposed to have a churchly bias - makes that definition. Likewise, I believe that the government (including the courts) has no right to force ANY church to extend their definition of matrimony outside the church’s beliefs.”

A government can’t define it for the rest of the world, but it absolutely can for its territory.

If a government is going to sanction or recognize anything, it has to define what it sanctions and recognizes. Law should always define its terms; otherwise it renders the law subjective, and therefore arguably meaningless.

The government therefore has to define marriage as SOMETHING if marriage is going to be something the government deals with.

By: blackrose

blackrose — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:44:39 +0000

I agree with both of you! Both on the extrapolation on marriage, AND on the fact that this isn’t persecution, it’s simply a private group saying they’d prefer to not have another group that is completely the opposite of their beliefs using their property. It’s really no different than a person renting out their home for weddings, etc.

By: madrigalblue

madrigalblue — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:11:31 +0000

I’m in total agreement with your taking that a step further! Thanks for your comment.

By: chameleonsdream

chameleonsdream — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:03:32 +0000

I completely agree with you on this - but I go a step further on your same gender marriage analogy. Churches have a right to define marriage in whatever way they want - but they don’t have a right to define it for the rest of the world. I believe that it IS discrimination if the government - which is not supposed to have a churchly bias - makes that definition. Likewise, I believe that the government (including the courts) has no right to force ANY church to extend their definition of matrimony outside the church’s beliefs.