The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest
Vol: 48 Issue: 7 - Wednesday, September 07, 2005
WHAT 'Democratic' Process?
In 2000, California voters endorsed a ballot measure defining marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman. The people had spoken! Sort of.
On Tuesday, the California legislature, acting as the representative of those same people, passed legislation allowing gay marriage in California.
California now holds the twin distinctions of being the first state legislature to endorse gay marriage -- and having the state legislature most openly contemptuous of its electorate.
The San Jose Mercury News called it a 'stunning, historic decision'. I would agree, but for different 'historic' reasons than the openly ecstatic editorialist was gushing about.
A 'ballot measure' is grass-roots democracy at its most basic. A group of citizens propose a law, such as the 2000 Defense of Marriage Act, and it is put before the voters directly.
In essence, it is a state-wide, non-partisan 'election' of a LAW, rather than a lawmaker. It is when 'the people' write their OWN law. It is the democratic process in action.
The text of California's Proposition 22 reads as follows:“ Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”
That is how the words were laid out before the voters, so that there would be no misunderstanding of what they were voting for.
Fourteen words, the longest of which is 'California' -- it is difficult to argue that it was too difficult for one segment or another of the population to understand.
And, having understood what it was the ballot measure was proposing, the people spoke.
Proposition 22 was ratified by an overwhelming majority of California voters, prevailing by a 23-point margin.
Statewide, 4,618,673 votes were cast in favor of the proposition, comprising 61.4% of the total vote. Opponents garnered 2,909,370 votes, for 38.6% of the vote.
Final vote counts revealed that Proposition 22 won in 52 of California's 58 counties, including all of the major metropolitan areas except for San Francisco.
The six counties which did not approve Proposition 22 were all in the immediate San Francisco Bay area, including: Alameda county, Marin county, San Francisco county, Santa Cruz county, Sonoma county, and Yolo county.
Six counties out of the entire state! By any measure, the will of the people on this issue was overwhelmingly clear.
For that reason, the bill overturning Proposition 22 was NOT expected to pass, but at the last moment, three legislators from predominantly gay districts who had previously abstained changed their vote.
Assemblyman Simon Salinas, D-Salinas, ended up casting the deciding 41st vote in the 80-member lower house. The California Senate passed the legislation by the same margin.
One vote.
Assessment:
Not only did Proposition 22 pass the California ballot measure by an almost two-thirds majority, but the California State Supreme Court nullified marriage licenses issued last year by San Francisco Mayor Gavin in defiance of the law.
Supporters argued on the Assembly floor that the public is gradually coming to accept same-sex marriage. That was a stunning statement, when one considers its implications.
Only five years ago, California's voters were overwhelmingly opposed to gay marriage.
But in the five years since, Americans have been bombarded with pro-gay propaganda from all sides; 'news' reports, television programs like "Will and Grace", movies, and the incessant hammering by the political left against anything that sounds like it might be conservative.
Having sustained the non-stop propaganda campaign for five years, its proponents are now arguing that they have brainwashed a sufficient number of Californians -- as justification for ignoring the ballot measure.
The legislature, using subtle nuances like narrowing interpreting the "Defense of Marriage Act" as applying only to out-of-state gay marriages.
(WHAT out-of-state gay marriages? Massachusetts? Well, sorry about YOUR luck).
The California Legislature based its action on the premise that it was working on behalf of 'the people'. WHICH people? It wasn't the voters. And it wasn't based on the best interests of their constituency. Lawmakers have access to federal health studies, even in California.
According to a study conducted by the CDC entitled, "Marital Status and Health: United States, 1999-2002" that was based on interviews with 127,545 adults aged 18 and over as part of the National Health Interview Survey, traditional marriage are less likely than other adults to be in 'fair or poor health'.
They are less likely to suffer from chronic health problems than adults living other lifestyles. They are less like to suffer from psychological problems that adults in other lifestyles.
Adults living in a traditional marriage are less likely to be limited in their activities, from work to recreation to mobility. Adults in traditional marriages are less likely to smoke, drink heavily, and more likely to exercise and take care of themselves.
The study also shed new light on some oft-quoted statistics. For example, the statistic that says fifty percent of all American marriages end in divorce. But only ten percent of Americans are actually divorced at any given moment.
That presents an statistically interesting corollary deduction: While fifty percent of marriages end in divorce, this study also proves about the same number of divorces end in traditional marriage.
It is more than simply living with someone you love; the study found that adults who live in non-traditional relationships are also more likely to have health problems than traditionally married adults and 'more closely resemble divorced and separated adults.
It is worth nothing that the CDC study admits that "the reasons for better health status among married adults cannot be determined with the cross-sectional data collected in the National Health Interview Survey."
What does it all mean? There are several points to consider in summary.
First, there is the stunning decision by the California legislature to turn its back on the democratic process based on the stated assumption the pro-gay propaganda campaign had brainwashed a sufficient number of voters over the past five years.
Secondly, there is the assault on marriage itself. Jesus made it clear that marriage is a spiritual union, not once, but twice, before making it clear that marriage is ordained of God.
That is, in itself, sufficient reason for some to favor overturning marriage as an institution. Rebellion against God.
The spiritual element of marriage is such that God uses it to describe His relationship with mankind. The Church is characterized as the Bride of Christ. God characterized the practice of idol worship among the ancient Israelites as 'adultery'.
Ephesians 5:25 says, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it."
Colossians 3:18-19 repeats the theme, saying, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them."
Proverbs 5:18 says, "Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth."
Ecclesiates 9:9: "Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun."
1 Corinthians 7:3-4: "Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife."
All these Scriptures are regularly used by the Useful Idiots to 'prove' the Bible oppresses women, or that traditional marriage somehow tramples women's rights, and so on.
Ephesians 5:23 is the most often cited: "For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the Head of the Church: and He is the Saviour of the body".
Look back at them again.
Ephesians 5:25 requires the husband to love his wife, "as Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it."
Jesus allowed Himself to be crucified for His Bride. Husbands have a Scriptural duty to do no less for theirs.
As far as the husband being 'the head of the wife', Jesus taught the 'two shall become one flesh'. There are no two-headed animals in nature. Somebody has to take the lead, but with it, comes the responsibility before the Lord.
God said it should be the husband, as part of the curse pronounced against Adam; "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground". (Genesis 3:19)
(In a gay marriage, which is the 'husband' and which is the 'wife'? There are distinct, God-given duties assigned each role. How can that work in a marriage between 'husbands' -- or one between 'wives'? )
Proverbs and Ecclesiastes speak to the lifelong joy that is part of a happy, traditional marriage. So does the CDC's study.
Marriage has been part of the human social order as long as human beings have lived on this earth. Every civilization in history has had rules, customs and traditions associated with marriage.
Some civilizations sanction polygamy, others sanction arranged marriages, others follow the monogamous model given by Scripture, but there is no record of a civilization seriously questioning the basic principle of marriage -- that it is unique to a man and a woman -- until this generation, that is.
Even when all the scientific and social evidence proves beyond question that traditional marriages offer unique and lasting benefits, there are Useful Idiots everywhere questioning the system upon which civilization was built.
Traditional marriage is under attack primarily as a right-wing, religious tradition and therefore, worthy of redefinition for that reason, if no other, which is why the Useful Idiots on the Left have decided to back the gay rights effort to redefine mankind's oldest institution.
So the CDC study proves the health benefits of traditional marriage. Other previous medical studies have established the healing power of prayer, still others, the health benefits of regular Christian fellowship, and, so on.
While documenting that these benefits are real and tangible, the CDC admits that it can't explain why.
But the California legislature, blinded by this world, just passed a bill that, according to the CDC, is unhealthy and, taken to its extreme, would result in the complete breakdown of the existing social order.
It is fascinating to take a step back from it all, and consider it in light of the Big Picture for the last days.
Dig out your history books and see if you can find a previous generation that fits the following description more vividly than this one:
"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. . . Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen." (Romans 1:22,25)
Changing the truth of God into a lie . . . we've examined what God's 'truth' is about marriage, and have examined the tenets of secular humanism (the belief that man is his own 'god') in previous briefings.
Paul continues:
"For THIS cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient." (Romans 1:26-28)
It grows increasingly obvious that the only thing restraining evil today is the believing Church. And, as noted by proponents of the gay marriage vote who credited the success of their propaganda campaign, for those to be left behind, the conditioning process has already begun.
The Rapture is at hand. That means there isn't much time left for us to fulfill our commission as watchmen on the wall.
The King is coming! Tell somebody.
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