By Pastor Roger Anghis

November 27, 2022

On November 28th the Senate will do a full chamber vote on what the Democrats call Respect for Marriage Act which, as is typical of most democrat bills, is the exact opposite of what this bill will do. It does NOT respect marriage; it attacks everyone that supports traditional marriage (between one man and one woman). What this bill does is to shove the radical leftist same-sex ideology down everybody’s throat by making that perverted ideology federal law.

The passage of this law will any state that has laws that define marriage as between one man and one woman will have to disregard that law and impose the federal law on all it’s citizens no matter what your religious beliefs might be. Any opposition to this law using your religious beliefs will be considered discrimination. Remember all the bakers that wouldn’t bake a cake for a same-sex ceremony? They will no longer be able to claim religious beliefs for refusing to make them a cake. ALL YOUR RELIGIOUS RIGHTS WILL BE REMOVED FOR THE SAKE OF PERVERTED IDEOLOGY.

Here is a comment from the Heritage Foundation concerning this bill: Don’t be fooled by the left’s messaging: This bill is no exception to the left’s agenda. It too is just another radical policy being peddled by progressives.

Despite its name, the bill isn’t about marriage or respect at all. It’s about imposing the radical left’s sexual ideology as state orthodoxy.

Final passage would mean states no longer are allowed to define and recognize marriage as a legal union between a man and a woman. Instead, they would be forced to recognize any union between two individuals, regardless of sex, as marriage.

Even more radical, the bill would require federal recognition of polygamy if just one state requires it.

By radically redefining marriage and eviscerating states’ rights, the bill would transform matters of disagreement—even on the basis of deeply and sincerely held religious belief—into discrimination.

Those who refuse to submit—whether states, government officials, or any the U.S. attorney general deems to be “acting under the color of State law”—would be punished for their beliefs.

Despite what advocates might say, similar laws elsewhere have been weaponized to punish dissenters. As they have done with dissenters before, radical leftists would use this law to ensure yet a more total compliance with their ideology.

Ultimately, enactment of HR 8404 would destabilize essential pillars of American society: family and religion.[1]

As is usual with democrats they completely ignore the rights enshrined in our Constitution and Bill of Rights.  Even Obama stated that he would be able to ‘accomplish more’ but he was restricted by the Constitution. Biden is completely ignoring the rights that we are guaranteed in the Constitution.  The First Amendment in our Bill of Rights states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof: of the abridging the freedom of speech . . .” This bill ignores all of that part of the First Amendment by establishing the religion of secular humanism over all other religions, will not allow a person or group to take a stand for their religious beliefs and if we speak against the perversion of homosexuality, we will be charged with a hate crime.

There is also a provision in this unconstitutional law that allows the government to remove the 501(C)3 status of churches that stand against what God calls an abomination.  This bill will force all states to recognize a same-sex marriage that occurred in another state voiding any law in any state that limits marriage to one man and one woman.  There is a strong argument against the federal governments right to force states to accept this provision. An article in the Daily Citizen states: It’s also dubious whether Congress has the power under Article IV, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, known as the “full faith and credit clause,” to require such recognition. The full faith and credit clause, by its own terms, requires state courts to recognize statutes, official documents and court judgments from other states, but invoking that clause in support of out-of-state same-sex marriages is controversial and most likely unconstitutional.

For example, states license hundreds of different legal statuses in addition to marriage, from fishing to barbershops to guns. Unless a state grants some kind of reciprocity to its sister states in any given category, a fishing or some other license you obtain in Vermont won’t do you any good in Colorado. But reciprocity is up to each state, and Congress has never used the full faith and credit clause to impose that type of uniformity on such state-recognized statuses.[2]

I am not one to beat around the bush about a subject. I can look at things in just one way.  What is right and what is wrong. Those are subjects that a person by the time they are fifteen or sixteen years old should have a good grasp on them. The Democrat party does not have much of an understanding of if at all of either. They understand power only and will do anything including violating all of your rights to get that power. This is one of those power grabs. Democrats don’t own a monopoly on stupid. There were twelve Republicans that voted for this that got it out of committee. Here is a comment from the Daily Signal on the twelve RINO Republicans that slapped Christians in the face: Twelve Republicans voted for advancing the legislation: Sens. Roy Blunt of Missouri, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Shelley Capito of West Virginia, Susan Collins of Maine, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Rob Portman of Ohio, Mitt Romney of Utah, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Todd Young of Indiana.

Most of these lawmakers did not respond to requests for comment from The Daily Signal.

Ernst said Wednesday evening that “after hearing directly from Iowans, and closely reviewing the amended language,” she believes “this bill protects religious freedoms and will simply maintain the status quo in Iowa.”[3]

I’m not shocked at some of the republicans that voted for this. Murkowski who votes 60%= of the time with democrats, Susan Collins, RINO Romney, and Cynthia Lummis from Wyoming was a surprise. I didn’t think anybody in Wyoming was that anti-American. Joni Ernst was the big shocker stating that the bill ‘protects religious freedoms’ went it destroys religious freedoms.

Not all bills that make it out of committee pass on the floor and hopefully this is one of them. But be assured that the Democrats will do all they can to get this passed.  It has already passed the House with 37 Republicans voting for it. It will go back to the House if it passes the Senate because of a couple changes that were made. We need to let our Senators know that we do not want this bill passed. So, please contact your Senators to oppose HR 8404.

© 2022 Roger Anghis – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Roger Anghis: roger@buildingthetruth.org

Footnotes:

  1. House-passed-respect-marriage-act-isnt-about-marriage-its-about
  2. House-passes-dangerous-bill-enshrining-same-sex-marriage-as-election-year-tactic
  3. Senate-votes-on-radical-lgbtq-legislation-respect-for-marriage-act