If you want to see what passes for political thought in Massachusetts, head on over to Universal Hub, the self-appointed watchdog of Boston bloggers who regularly provides liberal snarky commentary on what conservative bloggers, including me, have to say. What’s interesting is the summary of pro-gay bloggers who are upset that the Massachusetts Legislature simply did its constitutional duty.
The common refrain you hear from them is that “You can’t put civil rights to a vote” or that the voters do not “have a right to strip existing civil rights from others, in this case homosexuals.”
This is a straw man. Simply asserting you have a right to do something, even if a court agrees with you, does not make it a right. Where do rights come from? Civil rights are inalienable and they come from God, at least that’s what our founding documents say. Where in all of the history of man and religion has any Western civilization, since that is indeed the basis of our laws and understanding of human rights, has any government or church ever said that marriage is anything other than the union of man and woman?
Let’s assume for a moment that contrary to reason, civil rights can simply be invented out of thin air. Then who has the authority to declare such a thing to be really a right? If some perverts declare that it is their civil right to have sex with children and they get a five out of nine judges to agree with them, then are the rest of us forced to simply agree with that decision?
Civil rights were put to a vote before
Technorati Tags:civil rights, constitution, marriage, Massachusetts, politics, same-sex marriage
