West Michigan Christian News

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West Michigan
christiannews
Statement of Purpose:
The West Michigan Christian News
desires to glorify God while providing
global, national, and local news to the
West Michigan community.
The West Michigan Christian News is
a nondenominational, Christ-centered,
advertiser supported monthly newspaper
published in Grand Rapids, Michigan by
WMCN, LLC. It is unabashedly biased in
its Christian presentation of news and
views. It is also dedicated to the promotion
of Christian unity by focusing on the
95 percent of the Christian faith on which
all Christians agree while refusing to get
drawn into controversies about the 5 percent
on which we might differ.
Viewpoints expressed in articles and
columns appearing in The West Michigan
Christian News are those of their respective
authors and do not necessarily reflect
those held by the publishers, the advertisers,
or the churches and other sites from
which this publication is distributed. The
West Michigan Christian News takes no
controversial position on the specific doctrines
of any Christian denomination; further,
neither the publisher nor the editors
presume to convince its readers to accept
different or controversial interpretations
of Scripture.
Editorial contributions to The West
Michigan Christian News are welcome,
but publication is not guaranteed. Deadline
for contributions is the 15th of the
month prior to publication.
Advertising information and rates may
be obtained by calling the phone number
listed below. The publisher reserves the
right to accept only those ads which conform
to the standards of this publication.
Each ad will be evaluated on a case by
case basis.
Feedback about the newspaper’s content
is welcomed; mail and email addresses
are found below. Every attempt will be
made to respond to feedback; but in some
cases and at some times high volume may
prevent individual correspondence.
The West Michigan Christian News is
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The West Michigan Christian News is
also available on a subscription basis and
will be mailed to any address in the United
States for $19.95 annually.
David L. VanderVeen
Publisher/Editor
©2010 The West Michigan Christian News
PO Box 921
Ada, Michigan 49301
TELEPHONE: (616) 272-3983
FAX: (616) 954-9628
EMAIL: WMCN@comcast.net
Member, Evangelical Press Association
Law and Marriage
Cal Thomas
Tribune Media Services
A federal judge in Boston has ruled
that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)
passed by Congress (427 members voted
in favor) and signed into law by President
Clinton in 1996 cannot take precedence
over a Massachusetts law allowing samesex
marriage. The ruling again raises serious
questions about the origin and purpose
of law. But before we get to that larger
question, the “logic” of Judge Joseph L.
Tauro’s ruling should first be examined.
Judge Tauro’s decision flies in the face of
what the federal government has claimed
and is claiming in at least two other significant
cases. In 1973, the Supreme Court
struck down all state laws restricting a
woman’s right to have an abortion. In its
lawsuit against Arizona’s new immigration
law, the Department of Justice claims federal
law (which the feds are not enforcing)
trumps state law.
So let’s see: state laws are fine when they
promote the interests of the ruling liberal
and cultural elites, but they are to be ignored,
or overturned, when they do not
promote the objectives of the ruling liberal
and cultural elites. Is that it? How can the
federal government have it both ways?
A New York Times editorial says of
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DOMA “There is no rational basis for discriminating
against same-sex couples.” Really?
Has the newspaper forgotten the federal
government’s “discrimination” against
Utah when it forbade the territory from
entering the Union until it outlawed polygamy?
In 1878, the Supreme Court declared
in Reynolds v. United States that polygamy
was not protected by the Constitution. If
the federal government could reject polygamy
then as a means of promoting the general
welfare, why can’t it block attempts to
redefine marriage now? If marriage is redefined
by courts, what is to stop anyone
from declaring a “right” to any relationship
they wish to enter and demanding “equal
protection” under the Constitution?
Now to the larger question of law, which
is also being re-defined. During her confirmation
hearings, Elena Kagan said she
loved the law. Too bad no one asked her
which law she loves and what is law’s purpose?
Law is meant to conform humans to
a standard that preserves the cultural and
moral order. The purpose of government is
to “secure” unalienable pre-existing rights
about which Thomas Jefferson wrote in
the Declaration of Independence (a document
Kagan dismissed as irrelevant to
the Constitution, though it is the Constitution’s
moral and philosophical foundation).
Government is not supposed to create
new rights like national health care, or
same-sex marriage.
The Times editorial dismisses the over-
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whelming approval for DOMA as a “wedge
issue” during an election year. In fact, it
reflected the principled position not only
of a vast majority of members of Congress,
but also the position of the public, which
has almost universally rejected attempts
to legalize same-sex marriage. In 2004, 11
states had ballot measures preserving marriage
as between opposite sex couples.
All passed. In 2008, three states had gay
marriage ballot initiatives. Two passed.
In California, a measure to overturn the
State Supreme Court’s earlier 4-3 decision
upholding the constitutionality of a legislative
ban on same-sex marriage was approved
by 400,000 votes, or 52 percent of
those voting.
Marriage re-definers demand acceptance
for their position that morality, as well as
right and wrong, are to be determined by
polls. If polls show the public disapproving
of behavior the elites favor, the elites
ignore majority opinion and seek to shove
it down our throats anyway, because, you
see, only they can be right. The rest of us
have the equivalent standing of 1950s segregationists.
Anyone arguing for tradition
is branded a bigot, a label that is supposed
to end all discussion, while the labeled one
is exhausted trying to prove a negative.
Judge Tauro’s ruling will likely be overturned
on appeal, but that won’t stop the
marriage re-definers. In a morally exhausted
society, they just might succeed. Polygamists
were 130 years before their time.
(c) 2010 TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
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