There are almost 30,000 viewers watching the live stream of the New York State Senate right now. This may be the last day of a long legislative session before lawmakers break for the summer.
It’s also the feast of St. John the Baptist, a few days after the longest day of the year. But it’s already dark, and it looks like the Senate is finally going to vote on the same-sex “marriage” bill ... in the dark of night.
Yes, it appears the Senate is opting to vote “under cover of darkness.” But no, that’s not really the case, is it, not in this Internet age, when the session is being streamed live on the Senate’s own website and folks like the National Organization for Marriage are tweeting updates from Albany.
But there’s another kind of darkness, apparently. As recently as today, the National Organization for Marriage was still calling attention to the fact that no one really knows what’s in the revised bill, which apparently has religious exemptions. It’s a fundamentally different bill, NOM’s executive director, Brian Brown, said to me yesterday when we caught up in New York. The citizens of New York should be able to see what their legislators are voting on.
We might echo Nancy Pelosi here, when she said of landmark healthcare legislation that Congress passed a year and a half ago: “We have to pass the bill before we can know what’s in the bill.”
For Brown, the issue goes even beyond that: the people of New York should decide this matter through a referendum rather than the legislature. Though New York doesn’t have directi initiative referenda, he said it’s possible to hold an “advisory referendum” or a constitutional amendment. He insists that same-sex “marriage” advocates, though they claim the measure has strong public backing, are afraid of any method that would allow citizens to decide directly.
“This is an issue that’s so fundamental and basic and visceral that the people should be able to decide,” Brown said.
But it appears that that will not happen. Legislators will vote tonight, and tomorrow we’ll find out what’s in the bill.
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This isn’t an issue for the public to decide. It’s never a good idea to let a majority decide on rights for a minority. Church has no place in the public sphere, just as facts have no place in churches.
more typical left-wing bigotry posted in the combox
That is backwards. This is a minority imposing a redefinition of an age old institution on the majority. And nothing about rights…all people had the same rights before this action, and all will have the same rights after. Whether or not they have changed (for everyone in NY) is what the vote is about.
Keep telling yourselves that…. in the meantime, it passed!
yes, we will!
because we are correct
Meh
Congrats on having the most corrupt and useless entity in all of American politics to naturally, instinctively, and reflexively redefine an institutional construct that binds essentially all of the Occident (outside of the occasional fundamentalist Mormon) and a good amount of the Orient. This state that I am “proud” to live in once again reaches for the unimpressive middle… small wonder it has nearly the same population that it has had for the past forty years. Knee-jerkingly liberal on social issues, and utterly reactionary in its economic “progressivism.”
Also, not aided by its too often squishy Catholic population that continually votes Democratic because that party just luuuuurves the old Union hall that grampa and grandma have been a part of since 1956. Religious beliefs be damned, the “wittle guy” needs protection from the big bad bankers.
And to the hammers of Hades goes the NYS GOP, the Saruman to the NYS Democratic Sauron, a weasly, venal, money-loving entity that embraced Moloch years before the Berger Court did (and it was an UPSTATE GOP legislator too who did the deed back in 70 as well!!!! History repeats!)
Douche chill!!
For the record, no one said the Catholic Church had to redefine its understanding of marriage. It doesn’t recognize divorce, either, but that’s a legal practice that is regularly utilized by regular Church-goers. As several bloggers on this website have noted this is a symptom of cultural change, not a cause of it. Now, gay people who want the benefits that come with marriage can have them in the state of NY; and the RCC is still welcome to define marriage as between one man and one woman. Both of which are fine with me. The sky isn’t falling. At least not because of this issue.
Well said Richard! Catholics can still totes be Catholics (not to mention pious hypocrites). Newsflash: you guys made up your religion, not everyone believes in “Christianity” - get over it. We aren’t going to live our lives in the fringes of society because religious people have a problem with our matching genitals. Sheesh! Now, can we move onto ending the tax breaks for donations to religious groups. That would really take the bark out of them.
nice job calling me a douche
good job too with the pious hypocrites comment
nobody, and I mean NOBODY is more hypersensitive about rights and responsibilities than left-wingers… it’s like listening to men and women perpetually stuck at age 14. Nothing intellectual here. No rationality. Just emotionalism. Exuberance when you get your way and petulance when you lose
The previous comment (posted at 9:19) will no doubt be removed as soon as the fine folks at NCR get wind of it. Until that time, all people of faith need to read those words and understand that this is a common response of same-sex “marriage” supporters to all people of faith who promote God’s design for marriage.
The problem is that the true haters and bigots now have the law on their side.
I have to agree with Brian. I hope they remove that post asap. That is sad. I don’t like the name-calling above, either.
As to the comment posted at 9:19AM, where is the love? Those who believe in God’s design of marriage are called haters and bigots. We see where the real hatred and bigotry lies with those comments. Truly sad, that person’s soul is in true danger that wrote that comment.
My comments above are still the same after your last couple of posts. Just because you believe you have no soul doesn’t make it true. Your soul is still in danger. I just said a prayer for you.
It was only 44 years ago this month that interracial marriage was fully allowed in the US.
Even back then, religious groups were among those who opposed the changing laws.
We don’t have to tolerate religious intolerance. The onus of tolerance is not on us. The onus is on them to first prove their god exists and that s/he agrees with them.
JUST SAYIN!
If you ever want it back, there is always forgiveness through Jesus Christ. I pray that one day you will turn to Him.
If anything, the gay marriage OK in NY should demonstrate to the Church that it can’t place absolute trust in the Republican Party to toe its line. I don’t know why social conservatives time and time again become disappointed when the GOP fails to deliver on “values voter” agendas. The GOP pays lip service to Christian conservatives just to lock in a bloc of votes for the ballot box.
Even religions as powerful as the Catholic Church can’t keep an entire political party in its pocket. Maybe it’s time to think of a non-political means for the Church to protect its interests. Censure of an entire political assembly? That’s Bp, DiMarzio’s solution. Bouncers at the altar rail? Maybe excommunication is the only avenue the Church has left to exert political influence.
All I know is that the wedding of convenience between the GOP and American Catholicism is merging towards a separation.
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