On marriage equality

I am in favor of marriage equality. Where did God say that this group of human beings or that was not created in his image? What criteria do we use to say God given rights do not apply to all human beings? Thousands of civil laws concerning child custody and welfare, inheritance, taxes, healthcare, property contracts, etc, use the word marriage.

Reality check: single parents, unmarried couples, couples without children, abusive parents, divorce, and death exist in our society. Who does not “deserve” to have a legal structure to help them navigate the financial and social complexities of family life?

Who gets to define words? If the concern of Old Testament

fundamentalists is that they want a word to define the Old Testament legal structure that considers women, children, and workers as property, rape a path to acquire property, and inheritance the exclusive right of men; marriage is not it. What about basing our law on the principles of Love that Jesus died for?

The best way to honor marriage between a woman and a man is to act honorably within your marriage. Causing harm to others by denying them equal protection under civil law benefits no-one. I reject the idea that we use the legal reasoning of a culture that existed Before Christ. This is legal creationism. This same culture gave birth to Sharia Law, using the same principle that dictates that all men have dominion over women and children, and privileged men have dominion over workers.

The Rule of Law and Equal Protection are the founding principles of our government. There was a reason the founders created a separation between Church and State. The reason is today’s civil law should reflect

the reality and reasoning of the world we live in today.

Roberta Hackett

Oroville, Wash.