Freedom of Conscience

A thought provoking article titled Legislating Immorality on NRO.

Judgement is a vital necessity of life. We formulate our opinion and navigate our life according to this belief. It allows us to function. As a society we hold certain values and beliefs as communal and call them laws. As individual values change, so do the laws. But at what point is another's opinion legislated as right or wrong? Are there two truths?

I believe marriage is a sacred union between man and woman, ordained by God, to be performed by the power of the priestood in the Temple of the Lord. Applying this definition, marriage by the state and civil unions differ greatly from MY view of marriage. Honestly I do not care if civil unions are renamed marriage in the state of California: others' definitions of marriage are clearly different from my own and I don't advocate legislating my definition upon them. Although a majority in California felt to do so, I feel it will be overturned in the court system as it was in the past.

Yet the court system, designed to protect the rights of individuals, is a double-edged sword, currently swinging in a dangerous direction. The article sited two instances: doctors sued for not providing elective treatment according to their own conscience and a company threatened into providing services that they had previously refrained from giving. Do the doctors have rights to refuse IVF? It depends if it is a moral question or a civil rights question. Can eHarmony refuse to offer same-sex couples? Once again it depends on which truth you subscribe to.

I have felt for some time that conservative beliefs have been targeted, disparaged and renamed as narrow-minded, ignorant and even oppressive. Yet at the same time, liberal beliefs are called accepting, reality or even rights. While I recognise that many do not agree with my personal beliefs, conservatives and liberals alike, I maintain that I have a right to believe, act and vote according to my conscience. I maintain that others have a right to do so as well.

Proposition 8, 14 simple words, has opened Pandora's box. Which values and beliefs are moral and which violate civil rights?

I cannot interpret the delphic riddle, but I fear the sword of Damocles hangs over the Freedom of Conscience, ready to pierce the Diversity of Belief which we hold dear in this country.

-Al