Pro-family groups throughout the nation are condemning the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage in the United States, on the grounds that it dismissed both the Constitution and the laws of nature and nature’s God, upon which the Constitution is based.
“Five justices on the Supreme Court have overturned the votes of 50 million Americans and demanded that the American people walk away from millennia of history and the reality of human nature,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. “In reaching a decision so lacking in foundation in the text of the Constitution, in our history, and in our traditions, the Court has done serious damage to its own legitimacy.” He continued:
No court can overturn natural law. Nature and Nature’s God, hailed by the signers of our Declaration of Independence as the very source of law, cannot be usurped by the edict of a court, even the United States Supreme Court. Marriage is rooted not only in human history, but also in the biological and social reality that children are created by, and do best when raised by, a mother and a father. No court ruling can alter this truth.
Josh Kredit, vice president of policy and general counsel for the Center for Arizona Policy, said in a statement: “Today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision is historically tragic. The High Court has disregarded the democratic process by stripping all Americans of their ability to debate and decide marriage policy.”
“What’s more, by throwing out the time-tested definition of marriage as only the union of one man and one woman, the Court has said that children don’t deserve the best opportunity to be raised by their mom and dad,” he added.
Kredit observed the U.S. Constitution is “absolutely silent on the definition of marriage,” and condemned the Court for dismissing “the votes of tens of millions of voters throughout the country.”
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a legal organization that advocates for religious liberty, said in a statement, “While the Supreme Court’s unfortunate decision means that the federal judiciary will force the states to make marriage something that it’s not, society’s discussion about the future of marriage isn’t over.”
The organization said marriage between a man and woman “ensures that more children will know and be raised by both their mother and their father—something that every kid deserves,” and that a “proper view of marriage helps to pull the economically disadvantaged out of poverty, giving hope to the marginalized and downtrodden.”
ADF expressed its concern that the Court’s ruling will threaten religious freedom.
“People who believe in marriage as the union of one man and one woman are being targeted, their livelihoods are being threatened, and they are even being ordered to attend government-run “reeducation” programs all because they refuse to promote or participate in something that conflicts with their conscience,” the group said, adding that “no one should be threatened or punished by the government for believing in the good of marriage.”
Penny Nance, CEO and president of Concerned Women for America, called the Supreme Court’s decision “a sad day in America when nine unelected justices think themselves so powerful that they dare overturn the votes of millions of Americans who went to the voting booth to preserve marriage as it has been understood throughout history, the union between one man and one woman.”
Nance added that the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell “will go down in history alongside other appalling Supreme Court rulings, like Dred Scott and Roe,” and condemned it as a ruling that will only heighten the culture wars in the United States.
The Catholic Association also weighed in on the Court’s decision.
Maureen Ferguson observed, “The Court’s opinion gives lip service to the rights of people of faith,” and added, “In order to ensure that people of faith are not discriminated against for their beliefs about marriage, as Solicitor General Verrilli acknowledged they may well be, we call on Congress to pass the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA).”
“Prior to today’s decision, we have already witnessed a growing lack of tolerance that has forced Catholic Charities out of adoption ministries, sincere Christians have been heavily fined for declining to bake wedding cakes and employees from CEOs to fire chiefs have been forced out of jobs merely for respectful expression of their views,” she noted.
Ashley McGuire of The Catholic Association said she is hopeful religious liberty will be respected with the Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage.
“In his majority opinion today in Obergefell v. Hodges, Justice Kennedy affirmed that religious liberty and conscience rights must be a part of the implementation of this decision,” she said, adding that religious liberty “forms common ground between the majority and the dissenters.”
“If we are to maintain a pluralistic and vibrant society, people of faith must continue to be able to hold and express a multiplicity of views, and today’s opinion affirmed that fundamental American principle,” she said.
Also of The Catholic Association, Dr. Grazie Christie emphasized all human beings “deserve equal respect,” an idea that is “woven, thankfully, into the fabric of our nation.”
“We must remember, however, that a reverence for human rights must also honor the right of each person to freely express and live their lives by their deeply held religious beliefs,” she added. “Muslims, Jews, Christians, and followers of other religious traditions must continue to find their presence welcome and their ideas about family and marriage respected.”
“Unfortunately, today’s decision creates the scenario where our fellow Americans will likely be asked to cease to follow the dictates of their faith or else leave the public square and close up their schools and hospitals,” Christie warned. “This would be pure tyranny. The impulse toward bullying religious institutions and men and women of conscience must be resisted.”
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