Oklahoma Republican wants to make secular marriage impossible.

[Esquilax]

[Chas]

Oklahoma state rep Todd Russ wants to make it so only religious officials can officiate legally binding marriages, as a way of dodging same sex marriage laws.

Under his proposal, judges and county clerks would be unable to sign marriage licenses that have not first had the approval of a religious representative, who in his world would just deny all gays that right as a matter of course. Evidently, non-bigoted religious denominations (though one has to imagine Russ is only thinking that christian officials would be able to do this, his proposal would not possibly succeed if he outright said this) don't exist in his world.

But it's his rationale that really stands out:

“Marriages are not supposed to be a government thing anyway,” he said Wednesday.

Having had this thought, Russ promptly proposed government legislation dictating how marriages could be performed.

You can't fix stupid, but apparently you can elect it to office.

[Lucanus]

Is this guy for real? This is ridiculously dumb.

[Bad Wolf]

M'urica

[Darkstar]

M'urica

This is low, even for 'Murica... or is it? I'd like to think so, but... hock: ...I don't know anymore. I know the religious right is dumb but... oh, who am I kidding! It isn't possible to underestimate the stupidity of some people. You know what they say: if you make something fool-proof, someone will create a better fool.

[Crossless2.0]

What's funny about this is that the proposed legislation is in protest to the way the courts have supposedly usurped the proper legislative function. In the vanishingly small chance that this nonsense would ever get passed into law, take a wild guess how well it would fare when taken to court. The representative proposing the bill is mentioned in the article as being an Assemblies of God minister, so I don't expect much in the way of rationality from him; but you might think that some little bit of grade school civics would have adhered to his pea-sized brain -- enough that he would understand how ridiculous and doomed this proposal is, no matter how popular it might prove to be in Okieville.

Then again, the religious right in this country is all about grandstanding and the appearance of action. I doubt he really thinks his brain fart will fly. It's all about pandering to the same idiots who elected him in the first place.

[dyresand]

How about fuck the institution and ill just say oh hey i guess i am married now no preacher needed i gave the person i love a ring and they gave me a ring back.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Fatuous dimwits like the one in the article seem to have a problem grasping how democratic institutions are supposed to operate.

1. Attempting to set aside court decisions meant to prevent discrimination (in this case, discrimination against homosexuals) by proposing legislation that proffers discrimination (in this case, against secularists) isn't the solution to a problem, it IS the fucking problem.

2. I haven't read the bill, but I strongly suspect that clergy of religions that either a) support gay marriage or b) don't really care that much about it won't be qualified to sign off on the marriage license. More discrimination.

3. People like this yammer head go about shrieking about 'the will of the people' and that a majority of voters don't support gay marriage. So fucking WHAT?? Democracy isn't about majority rule, it is about law, and about keeping the majority from running roughshod over the rights of the minority. Court are SUPPOSED to strike down unjust laws, that what courts are for, fer fuxxake.

As an aside, the pol in the article is an Assemblies of God minister. These people are Pentecostals in sheep's clothing, and can give Free Presbyterians a rough going in the World's Whackaloon Competition.

Boru

[SteelCurtain]

[Chad32]

Sounds like that will just put even more pressure on religious leaders to officiate marriages, if that's the only way marriage can be officiated. And when that pressure gets put on them, he'll whine about discrimination against religious leaders, despite the fact that he wanted a law passed that mandated it be done by them.