Chief Justice John Roberts

    In the Supreme Court ruling announced last Friday in Obergefell v. Hodges, the court ruled that “The Fourteenth Amendment requires a State to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-State” (scotusblog.com).

    Writing in his dissent, Chief Justice John Roberts said, “Petitioners make strong arguments rooted in social policy and considerations of fairness. …But this Court is not a legislature. Whether same-sex marriage is a good idea should be of no concern to us. Under the Constitution, judges have power to say what the law is, not what it should be. …The majority’s decision is an act of will, not legal judgment. The right it announces has no basis in the Constitution or this Court’s precedent.” Robert is correct. The word “marriage” is not found anywhere in the Constitution.

    The Tenth Amendment, ratified long before the Fourteenth Amendment, says, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” The Court should have left the decision to each state, at a minimum.

    But Roberts, himself, is partly to blame for this catastrophe. Just the day before, in King v. Burwell, the very same justice wrote the majority opinion upholding the subsidies in Obamacare, saying: “Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them. If at all possible, we must interpret the Act in a way that is consistent with the former, and avoids the latter.” Yes, “healthcare” is right beside “marriage” in the Constitution. It is the inconsistencies of men like Roberts that have shredded the Constitution and left our country to be governed by men, not law.

    On to the spiritual principle… The Holy Spirit guided the apostle Paul to write: “The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things” (Philippians 4:9). That makes the words of the apostles the Supreme Law of the church of Christ. But, there is also a “Tenth Amendment” in this “Supreme Law:” “you may learn not to exceed what is written” (1 Cor. 4:6; a principle reiterated from beginning [Deut. 4:2] to end [Rev. 22:18-19] of God’s law).

    To put it simply, man is authorized to do what God has authorized and forbidden from doing what God has not authorized.

    Several years ago, a Christian church (which used instrumental music in worship) had some major problems in Paris, KY. The younger generation wanted to bring in a full band which the older members did not think was appropriate. That’s what happens when you leave the law and are governed by men. Anything goes.

    One thing that Chief Justice John Roberts ought to teach us as Christians is that if we want to be right with the Law of God, do not “interpret” it to fit our fancy. Understand what the will of the Lord is and then do it, with no subtractions, additions, or substitutions.

--Paul Holland