Guest Post by Robert Jursik – a refutation of Steve’s post:
Rare it is that I would find myself on the contrary side of anything in GraniteGrok, populated as it is with genuine New Hampshire Patriots always ready to contend for individual freedom. Nor would I expect to argue against the formidable Steve MacDonald, with whom I have been happy to rhetorically stand elbow-to-elbow in the grand work of re-claiming limited government for all. Yet, here we are, diverging at last over the question of marriage, and the state’s authority to regulate it.
Steve expresses support for HB 569, a proposed statute sponsored by nine libertarian-leaning Republican State Reps that would accept the term "domestic union" as the legal equivalent of marriage. It would attempt to deftly avoid the question of extending state recognition of homosexual marriages by removing government authority over the topic altogether. His claim is that "HB 569 creates real marriage equality and removes any state-based religious prejudice." However, it does no such thing and it deserves rejection.
To assert that HB 569 "removes state-based religious prejudice" is to presume that current government regulation of marriage is mired in it. Yet, New Hampshire – along with every other state in the union – has certified Justices of the Peace to perform marriage ceremonies outside of any religious construct and has also permitted judges to do the same. To participate in religious marital ceremonies is and always has been the prerogative of the parties and has never been a required ingredient in state regulation.
Nonetheless, the state has always insisted that marital…