This was a full page ad in the Washington Post last week. The group that posted it (led by religious bigot and preacher Rick Scarborough) claims to have 44,500 signatures (including the signatures of presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum). Those who signed it have sworn to "defy" the Supreme Court decision -- if it decides that same-sex marriage bans are unconstitutional.
They claim they:
“will not honor any decision by the Supreme Court which will force us to violate a clear biblical understanding of marriage as solely the union of one man and one woman.”
And say they:
“will accept any fine and jail time to protect their religious freedom and the freedom of others.”
My question is -- just how are they going to defy the decision? No one is talking about making them do anything. If the state bans are ruled unconstitutional, no one is going to be forced to marry anyone of the same sex. No one will be forced to attend or participate in a same-sex wedding. No church will be forced to hold a same-sex wedding. And no preacher, pastor, priest, imam or rabbi will be forced to perform a same-sex marriage. They can continue to be just as bigoted as they currently are.
So where is the defiance going to come from? The only thing the court decision would do is allow same-sex couples to marry if they want, and there would be plenty of religious and government officials that would be happy to perform the weddings.
The truth is that this threat to defy the court order is totally meaningless. It is nothing more than a last-ditch effort to frighten Americans into thinking their religious freedom would be violated by such a decision. But that is just a LIE. No one's religious freedom would be violated -- not even those religious bigots who want to continue to hate those different from themselves.
