North Carolina bishops push for ban on same-sex marriage

North Carolina bishops push for ban on same-sex marriage  My response:  The reason for the wording of this amendment is because if civil unions are allowed, and they are equivalent to marriage, not calling such unions marriages is unconstitutional under the recent 9th Circuit ruling. Of course, too restrictive a wording, like in Virginia, violates the protection of contracts under the federal constitution. In the end, marriage equality will likely be upheld by the Supreme Court - so this action is merely so that both sides can fight over the drive for a federal constitutional convention on this and other conservative issues (as well as repealing Citizens United). Such a convention is no more likely to have a result than doing this through Congress.


The bishops, as employers, are afraid of civil gay marriage because they have no leg to stand on in resisting it - as they honor heterosexual civil marriages, so not honoring civil gay ones can only be because of bigotry.

They are more afraid that Catholics for marriage equality will demand that civily married gay family members get a religious ceremony (and that a largely gay clergy will grant these requests privately in much the same way many priests bless marriages where annulment rules have not been fully followed). They are even more afraid that gay seminarians will demand the right to marry or will simply get married and not seek ordination.

What may scare them most is the prospect that donors will realize that giving the bishops money can be avoided altogether when the alternative exists to reorganize most church institutions as non-profits with no episcopal veto over their management - from parishes to schools to Catholic Charities. Once donors put their feet down, there is really nothing the bishops can do to prevent their being written out of the management of Church property.