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By Julie Asher
WASHINGTON (CNS) – The same-sex marriage bill advancing in the Senate is “a bad deal for the many brave, faith-less Americans who believe in and support the truth about marriage in the public square today,” New said. Cardinal Timothy M. of York. Dolan.
“It is deeply troubling that the US Senate has voted to pass the Respect for Marriage Act, which essentially codifies the Supreme Court’s (2015) Obergefell decision granting constitutional rights to same-sex civil marriages.” said the cardinal on November 17.
The cardinal, chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on Religious Freedom, said the Respect for Marriage Act “does not strike a balance that properly respects our nation’s commitment to the fundamental right of religious freedom.”
The Senate advanced the measure on Nov. 16 by a vote of 62-37. Final voting will be held after Thanksgiving.
Every Democrat supported it, and they were joined by 12 Republicans after they drafted an amendment that would protect religious freedom.
These senators “argued that their amended bill ‘respects and protects the religious freedoms of Americans,’ but the law’s religious freedom provisions are insufficient,” Cardinal Dolan said.
Obergefell “has created countless religious freedom conflicts, but the act offers only limited protection,” he said.
“Those protections,” he continued, “do not address the fundamental problem with the (Respect of Marriage) Act: In any context where there is a conflict between religious beliefs and same-sex civil marriage, the act is used as evidence for religious marriage. religious believers must defer to the state’s interest in recognizing same-sex civil marriages.”
“Wedding bakers, faith-based adoption and foster care providers, religious employers who want to preserve their faith, faith-based housing agencies all face the risk of discrimination under this law,” he added.
The US House of Representatives passed the bill on July 19 by a bipartisan vote of 267-157.
Ahead of the House vote, the chairs of the US bishops’ committees on life and marriage and family wrote a joint letter to House members urging them to reject the measure.
The Senate decided in mid-month to postpone a vote on the measure beyond the Nov. 8 deadline.
A bipartisan group of negotiators led by Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, also called for more time to consider an amendment designed to “address the concerns of GOP lawmakers who are wary of the law. If Congress votes to codify same-sex marriage rights Churches and other religious institutions are at legal risk if they do.
The group agreed that the bill would “protect all religious freedom and conscience protections provided in the Constitution or federal law, including, but not limited to, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and prevent the bill from being used to diminish or abrogate any such protections.” . to defend”.
The amendment also states that “nonprofit religious organizations shall not be required to provide any services, facilities, or goods for the solemnization or celebration of marriages.”
Two Republican senators who opposed the bill, Mike Lee of Utah and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said the measure was inadequate to protect religious freedom.
Lee tweeted on Nov. 16: “I offered to support the bill if the sponsors included my amendment to prohibit the government from revoking tax-exempt status based on religious beliefs (for or against) regarding same-sex marriage. The sponsors refused to even consider it. Why?”
Graham said “nothing in the bill adds new protections for gay marriage, but I think it creates a lot of uncertainty about religious freedom and institutions that oppose gay marriage.”
He added that Lee’s amendment would protect religious institutions from “repression.”
The Respect for Marriage Act repeals the Defense of Marriage Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996. It banned the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriage until the US Supreme Court ruled that law unconstitutional in 2013.
Congress’s push to codify the right to same-sex marriage in federal law followed Justice Clarence Thomas’ opinion in the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Thomas voted 6-3 and Rhodey prevailed, but in a unanimous opinion, that court said other decisions, including Obergefell and its 1965 Griswold decision, that the state’s ban on contraceptives violated marriage rights. privacy.
But the majority opinion in Dobbs said that the ruling only applied to the constitutional right to abortion.
While arguing for passage of the Respect for Marriage Act on November 16, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said it would be one of the “most important events of the year for this body.”
If the Senate passes the measure, the House must vote on it again because it has been amended.
Cardinal Dolan urged senators who supported the measure to consider the consequences of passing an unnecessary law that fails to provide positive protections for the many Americans who believe traditional marriage is “both true and fundamental to the common good.”
“The Catholic Church has always upheld the unique meaning of marriage as a lifelong, special union between one man and one woman,” he added.
“In doing so, the Obergefell court tells us that millions of Americans—both religious and secular—whom the Obergefell court called “reasonable and conscientious,” shared a long-standing understanding of the truth and beauty of marriage,” the cardinal said.
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