A pro-life group is denouncing officials in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, after the officials there began handing out same-sex marriage license despite state law clearly limiting the institution to the union of one man and one woman.
On July 23, county Register of Wills D. Bruce Hanes announced he would begin issuing licenses to same-sex couples. On Friday, that decision was met with a pray-in at the county offices by member of the Pro-Life Coalition of Pennsylvania.
“Civil law, from the beginning of our nation, has defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman, because the purpose of civil marriage is not about love,” said coalition president Mike McMonagle. “There’s no box on the marriage application whether you love each other. Having the institution unites a mom and a dad with their children. Failing to do that creates all sorts of problems for civil governments with failed education, welfare dependency, crime, prisons, etc.”
McMonagle sees multiple political elements at work in the actions ordered by Hanes and holds figures in both parties responsible.
“The reason the county chairman, Josh Shapiro, did this was because he wanted to undermine Gov. Corbett’s political support among conservatives, which he has succeeded in tremendously,” said McMonagle, who contends Democrats see forcing the issue as politically advantageous. Shapiro is a Democrat and Corbett is a very unpopular Republican up for re-election in 2014.
“Governor Corbett has been so timid on this because he’s afraid of addressing the issue down in the Philadelphia area. He thinks he’s going to lose on it, but in reality he’s losing a lot of conservative supporters because of his timidity and failure to enforce the rule of law,” said McMonagle.
Corbett has stated on multiple occasions that he supports the traditional definition of marriage but initially reacted to the same-sex marriage license controversy by declaring it to be a county issue. McMonagle calls that “utter nonsense”.
“To be married in Pennsylvania or any other state, once the clergyman or Justice of the Peace signs your marriage certificate, that certificate is ultimately filed at the Pennsylvania Department of Health and that’s when you’re legally married. Governor Corbett should come out and say, ‘I’m not going to recognize these same-sex marriage certificates.’ Next, he should initiate some sort of legal action to stop Hanes from doing this and so should other public officials. Our state legislature should call for his impeachment. We’ve been calling for all that activity,” said McMonagle.
Corbett is vowing to launch a legal defense this week. McMonagle believes the slow response is a result of Corbett challenging the recent NCAA sanctions against Penn State University and getting his case tossed out before arguments even began.
The legal fight to come could be intense, but McMonagle believes Friday’s pray-in served a very important purpose.
“It began the rally of the truth. There’s an old saying that a lie is halfway around the world before truth is getting its shoes on. This marriage debate is a good example. The lie that civil marriage is just about people in love with each other is halfway around the world,” said McMonagle, who also explained why a group devoted to protecting the unborn is so active in the marriage debate.
“(Same-sex marriage) is just a continuation of the war on children, begun with contraception and sterilzation and continuing with abortion. Now it’s an effort to deny children a mother and a father,” said McMonagle, who says it makes perfect sense to restrict marriage to the union of one man and one woman.
“This whole issue brings out all the asinine questions you get on this issue. ‘Isn’t marriage for everyone?’ ‘Does that mean that infertile couples can’t get married?’ ‘Isn’t it about love?’ etc.,” said McMonagle.
“There is thing called just discrimination. For example, it would be unjust discrimination to deny a blind person the right to vote because voting has nothing to do with the ability to see. But it would be just discrimination to say to a blind person, ‘You may not have a driver’s license because being able to see is essential to driving. Heterosexuality is essential to the meaning of marriage. Marriage is a union of one man and one woman. It means the capability of having sexual intercourse, which, by definition, is impossible in a same-sex relationship,” he said.
In addition, McMonagle says religious liberties are already under attack in this country, even though traditional marriage remains the law in the vast majority of states. He points out several business owners face legal sanction for refusing to provide services for same-sex weddings. He says ministers in Canada and Great Britain are legally forbidden from preaching on any text that condemns homosexual behavior.
