Readers give their views on gay marriage

How can a simple five-vote majority of nine unelected officials change the word of God, but 100 percent jury agreement is required for a criminal conviction?

— Derek Sidwell, Fort Worth

Christians, you might as well throw your Bibles into recycle bins!

The Supreme Court is now the Almighty Word!

— Dee Hodges, Arlington

Amid the lugubrious prognostications about the Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage, may I boldly suggest that this is a good thing?

Romans 8:28 reminds us “all things work together for good to those who love God…” Paul confidently believed in the providence of God and knew that the Sovereign Lord always brings good from evil.

Consider a few possibilities:

Because we have largely abandoned responsible church membership and been content with the status quo, God may have allowed pressure to come on his people to separate believers from pretenders.

In addition, this brave new environment will force us to lovingly and gently engage with people outside our evangelical cocoon.

Perhaps most important, God may be using the Supreme Court’s moral turpitude to draw from his prophets a prophetic word on his design for marriage and sexual intimacy.

Historically, when his own prophets became indistinguishable from society, God spoke to Israel through the Assyrians, Babylonians and Egyptians.

While I deplore the Supreme Court ruling in most ways, I cannot but wonder if Pharaoh “being dead yet speaks.”

If God is speaking to us through Pharaoh, God grant that the church will hear.

— Paige Patterson, Fort Worth

If you need to obtain a license from the government to do something, that is not a right, it’s a privilege.

Privileges can be revoked or denied by the government.

The Supreme Court decision granting homosexuals and the gender-confused the “right” to marry is a case in point.

Our rights do not emanate from any level of government. Rights are endowed by our creator, and these rights are inalienable.

As soon as we believe the fantasy that our rights come from the government, we cease being a free people.

We become subjects of a government that can curtail our freedoms, dictate our beliefs, seize our property, tell us what we can and cannot buy and to whom we must sell our products. We become slaves.

— Dan McArthur, Arlington

What other truths about the founding precepts of our nation will these unelected men and women redefine?

Truth is not of man, but of the higher power this body has abandoned.

Given this immoral trend, how long will “In God We Trust” be our motto or will we pledge as “one nation under God”?

— Ken Sapp, North Richland Hills

The Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage dealt with marriage as a civil matter only.

Religion was not at issue whatsoever.

Yes, the state allows ordained ministers to sign the state-issued marriage certificate, but that doesn’t make it a religious institution from a constitutional perspective.

And because it’s a civil issue, the government must treat everyone equally.

How else do we know it’s a civil matter only, and not a religious issue?

Because you don’t get a divorce from the church. You get it from the state.

I hope this clears everything up.

— Michael Evangelista-Ysasaga,

Fort Worth

Where did Attorney General Ken Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott get their law degrees? Off a cereal box?

Article VI, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution renders all Texas laws, ordinances and state constitutional provisions against same-sex marriage null and void.

As public employees, acting in their public character, county clerks have no “religious freedom” to deny marriage licenses.

— Paul R. Schattman, Arlington

This story was originally published July 2, 2015 at 7:10 PM with the headline "Readers give their views on gay marriage."