Mormon Church To SCOTUS: Say No To Same-Sex Marriage Because It Will Deprive Us Of "Citizenship Rights"

A coalition of religious denominations including the Mormon Church has filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in which they argue that the legalization of same-sex marriage will, among other things, deprive them of "citizenship rights." An excerpt:

A right to same-sex marriage also would supplant the States’ “historic and essential authority to define the marital relation” with an exertion of federal ju­dicial power beyond the democratic process. Representative democracy matters to religious organizations and people of faith. Their capacity to build communities where their values are respected and their ways of life protected depends on the plu­ralism that our democratic institutions foster and secure. The fundamental liberty of religious believers to participate with other free citizens in deliberating about and shaping the character of their common destiny has been protected by this Court’s determina­tion to read the Constitution as a charter for “people of fundamentally differing views.” To de­clare an unprecedented constitutional right to same-sex marriage would deny people of faith who support traditional marriage the liberty to participate as equal citizens in deciding which values and policies will govern their communities. We urge the Court to trust the people and their democratic institutions to resolve the marriage issue, as it has on other divisive issues so many times.

The brief is also signed by Assemblies Of God, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Wesleyan Church, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, the Church Of God, the National Association of Evangelicals, and a dozen others. (Tipped by JMG reader Corey)