THE GENIUS, TYRANNY AND TRAGIC STUPIDITY OF MAJORITY RULE

There has been much written about the tyranny of majority rule when it is applied to the rights of a minority. That potential tyranny is exactly what the founding fathers intended to counter balance with the creation of the justice branch of government. And, in particular, the Supreme Courts structure that encompasses state to federal levels of ultimate recourse in matters of conflict between the legislative processes and the tenets and intents of our constitution.

The genius of that structure is held in awe by us and by most of the world. And this is the heart and very foundation of the question of same-sex marriages. On one hand you have the constitutional guarantee of equal treatment under the law and on the other you have discriminatory legislation that was passed by majority votes. This is clearly the epitome of that conflict and I fully expect that this is a matter that can only be eradicated at that supreme court level.

But what about the tragic stupidity of the Arkansas adoption measure? This is something that was written to prevent gay couples from adopting children. But, the proponents realized that they probably couldn't get it passed if it only targeted gay couples so, in an act of sheer, desperate stupidity, they wrote it to ban ALL people who are “cohabitating outside a valid marriage.” It passed by a whopping majority of 57%!

According to an Op-Ed piece written by Dan Savage for the New York Times,

Right now, there are 3,700 other children across Arkansas in state custody; 1,000 of them are available for adoption. The overwhelming majority of these children have been abused, neglected or abandoned by their heterosexual parents.

Even before the law passed, the state estimated that it had only about a quarter of the foster parents it needed. Beginning on Jan. 1, a grandmother in Arkansas cohabitating with her opposite-sex partner because marrying might reduce their pension benefits is barred from taking in her own grandchild; a gay man living with his male partner cannot adopt his deceased sister’s children.

It's thoroughly disgraceful that qualified, loving and stable gay partners are barred from adopting. But now, thanks to the extraordinary blind-sighted actions of, again, religious zealots, hundreds more children in Arkansas will likely be forced to grow up in an understaffed and underfunded institution totally void of the loving care of parents and family. What could possibly be considered Christian about that?

Clearly, true Christianity has been almost completely overrun by fanatics whose zealotry and single-mindedness can only be compared to the early Puritans or, worse, the infamously cruel and murderous Spanish Inquisitions.

Is this what we want for our country? Is this the legacy we want to leave future generations?

I think not!