Mixing religion,
jurisprudence, and ideology together is one potent drink. Ingestion can cause
palpable heart-burn as well as migraine headaches. In the case of gay marriage
in the U.S., sorting out and evaluating the three elements can be rife with
controversy and thus confusion. In this essay, I discuss the county clerk in
Kentucky who refused to grant marriage licenses to gay couples because doing so
would violate God’s law and thus betray Jesus. Her religious rationale makes
for interesting legal reasoning. I then look at the U.S. Supreme Court’s
gay-marriage decision. I contend that a natural-right (and thus human right)
basis clashes with ideological anger. Human nature itself is on display
throughout, particularly as it wades into religion, legal reasoning, and
ideology.
The complete essay is at “Gay
Marriage: God’s Law, Legal Reasoning, and Ideology.”
