Thursday, September 2, 2010
carl on Stephen Hawkins: God Was Not Needed To Create The Universe: the Universe can and will create itself from nothing Something cannot exist before it exists.  Gravity does not exist without matter, and so gravity cannot…
carl on [Bumped For Obvious Reasons] Anglicanism Upside Down Down Under? Understanding Lay Administration: [360] driver8 [L]awful authority may order the church in any way consonant with Scripture and enforce uniformity Has Sydney been accused of acting unlawfully, or…
Fisherman on Stephen Hawkins: God Was Not Needed To Create The Universe: Hawking:  “Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing”. “Spontaneous creation is the reason there is…
cennydd13 on Newsflash: The Episcopal Church sues local congregation: The truth of the matter, MichaelA, is that Jerry Lamb knows what we say about him, but he thinks that Mrs Schori is insulating him…
Ralph on The sad demise of a potential candidate for Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School: Any comment that I might make about Katherine Ragsdale might well be taken as mocking the mentally ill.
Moot on The sad demise of a potential candidate for Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School: Hi Carl, I knew you weren’t reacting to my post, just something you had typed and had a second thought or three prior to hitting…
driver8 on [Bumped For Obvious Reasons] Anglicanism Upside Down Down Under? Understanding Lay Administration: Only Scripture binds the conscience. Including obeying the lawful authority? The Anglican view (as against the anabaptists) is firstly that the lawful authority may order…
Matt Kennedy on The sad demise of a potential candidate for Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School: Oh and I am certainly not mocking the dead but the living.
Matt Kennedy on The sad demise of a potential candidate for Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School: Wait, hold on…you mean to tell me he’s not an Episcopal clergyman? Wow! I mean I could have sworn since his views so closely resemble…
Don+ on [Entirely Off Topic] What's Wrong With This Shiny New Video on Public Education?: [7] above should read “better keep up with…”
Don+ on [Entirely Off Topic] What's Wrong With This Shiny New Video on Public Education?: No doubt these fast-paced students will be able to better up with the rapidly changing truth and radical new concepts of salvation.
carl on The sad demise of a potential candidate for Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School: [5] Moot I didn’t mean to imply anything about your post.  I was simply reacting to what I initially thought to write.  I agree with…
carl on [Bumped For Obvious Reasons] Anglicanism Upside Down Down Under? Understanding Lay Administration: [358] MichaelA Why do you want the Anglican church to abandon the doctrinal understanding of Thomas Cranmer, and of continental reformers with whom Cranmer corresponded,…
MichaelA on Newsflash: The Episcopal Church sues local congregation: In the long run, ACNA wins, since TEC is spending money that it cannot replace (because it does not have enough income from active parishioners…
GrandpaDino on [Entirely Off Topic] What's Wrong With This Shiny New Video on Public Education?: “Every textbook a child will carry thoughout their education” Obviously not a textbook on proper grammar.
NoVA Scout on The sad demise of a potential candidate for Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School: Document that I didn’t know something?  Not easy.  But my comment was based on Matt’s post.  This hostage taker guy was a candidate to be…
paradoxymoron on Newsflash: The Episcopal Church sues local congregation: You must be new to this site.  Yes, that’s what that means.
Ralph on The sad demise of a potential candidate for Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School: #2, carl, I agree. I further think it seems wrong to mock the mentally ill. I have no idea “where” he is right now.
Moot on The sad demise of a potential candidate for Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School: I wrote a post, thought better, and promptly erased it.  He’s dead, and it seems wrong to mock the dead. It’s possible to illustrate how…
BravoZulu on The sad demise of a potential candidate for Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School: NoVA Scout #3—- could you please document that.

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New Jersey Senate Postpones Indefinitely Vote on Same-Sex Marriage

Thursday, December 10, 2009 • 9:34 pm

The National Organization for Marriage's blog has the news on this huge defeat for gay-marriage advocates. Following a stunning defeat in the New York legislature, which many observers said would make passage in New Jersey more difficult, the powers that be in the New Jersey state senate have called it quits:
Yesterday, faced with the prospects of defeat in the Senate, bill sponsors Loretta Weinberg and Ray Lesniak petitioned Senate President Richard Codey to postpone the vote. It has now been postponed indefinitely!

Of course, Loretta Weinberg refuses to admit her defeat, but the evidence is indisputable. Four Democrat senators have now publicly stated their opposition to same-sex marriage, with just one Republican defector — virtually assuring the bill’s demise.

And our internal vote count suggests it could have been a landslide — just like we saw in New York last week.

Same-sex marriage advocates couldn’t stomach another overwhelming and very public defeat. So rather than bring the bill to a vote, with little or no chance for victory and significant risk of being humiliated, they have put the vote off indefinitely.

Comments:

I take it the NJ Legislature will be deposed on Monday, correct?  Or did they renounce their seats?

[1] Posted by tjmcmahon on 12-10-2009 at 10:32 PM • top

But putting it off means that they could bring it back. If voted on, that would have been a decisive defeat - now they can just regroup and bring it back later.

[2] Posted by Branford on 12-10-2009 at 10:35 PM • top

Please DDB…I have not seen a lawsuit filed all week. After all it is the mission of the Episcopal church.
Intercessor

[3] Posted by Intercessor on 12-10-2009 at 11:43 PM • top

Incoming NJ Governor Chris Christie is a devout RC and said he won’t sign it.

[4] Posted by mike458 on 12-11-2009 at 08:16 AM • top

A little more from NJ - the Catholic bishops in NJ launched a strong letter writing effort in all five Roman dioceses, as well as the one Byzantine diocese to senators and representatives against passage of this legislation, which was also aided by several of the major “megachurches” in the state doing the same. I live in the Metuchen Diocese (central NJ), and the bishop here called for TWO days of prayer and fasting.

[5] Posted by mike458 on 12-11-2009 at 08:29 AM • top

The witness of the Catholic Church in an increasingly secular age is ... wonderful.

[6] Posted by oscewicee on 12-11-2009 at 08:36 AM • top

#2 Branford - yes, the could bring it back later. However, the major reason to get it passed now was that lame duck Gov. Corzine could sign it into law before he left office. With Christie entering office next month, same-sex marriage will (legislatively, at least) be DOA for four years.

During a legislative briefing for liberal clergy at the Human Rights Campaign’s clergy call conference earlier this year, I was able to listen in on their strategy. The goal was to “mop up” the north east, then press into the mid-Atlanic, via Delaware. All of that now appears to be on hold (they thought NY and Maine were already “in the bag.”)

[7] Posted by Jeff Walton on 12-11-2009 at 09:26 AM • top

It looks like same sex “marriage"has been effectively torpedoed in New Jersey, and besides the efforts of the Catholic bishops and Christie’s intent of not signing the bill, I can’t help thinking that the publishing of the Manhattan Declaration may have had some influence here.

[8] Posted by Cennydd on 12-11-2009 at 11:00 AM • top

Personally, I don’t care who gets the credit for this important defeat of the pro-gay agenda.  I’m just happy it happened.

And when two quite liberal states in a row block the SSM bandwagon, that appears to create some welcome momentum in the right direction.

David Handy+

[9] Posted by New Reformation Advocate on 12-11-2009 at 12:50 PM • top

Make that three states: don’t forget Maine.

[10] Posted by Jeff Walton on 12-11-2009 at 01:55 PM • top

It would be interesting to know Louie Crew’s and +Spong’s take/reaction to this although I swore off following their diatribe long ago.

[11] Posted by Doubting Thomas on 12-11-2009 at 03:26 PM • top

It would be interesting to know Louie Crew’s and +Spong’s take/reaction to this

They will get right on it as soon as they finish with the facebook page calling upon ++Rowan to “repent” (not my word) for his remarks on the LA election.

No, I am not kidding, do you think I could make that up?? Straight off this morning’s HoBD listserve.
Maybe we should start up our own facebook pages…..

[12] Posted by tjmcmahon on 12-11-2009 at 03:51 PM • top

VirtueOnline has posted a letter to the editor from Beckwith of Newark that appeared in the Bergen Evening Record (one of the big NJ papers) the other day. You can almost guess how it reads.

[13] Posted by mike458 on 12-11-2009 at 04:02 PM • top

TJ, has the ABC “friended” them?? grin

[14] Posted by oscewicee on 12-11-2009 at 04:41 PM • top

Oscewicee,
  I disagree with much of what +Rowan has done (and not done) in recent years, but will be praying for his physical safety in the coming days.  Some of what is being said by people who are supposed to be church leaders is striking me as completely over the top.

[15] Posted by tjmcmahon on 12-11-2009 at 05:04 PM • top

I’m not really surprised, TJ. Limits aren’t something that seem to be understood in certain quarters - over the top is fine as long as it gets you what you want. Not.

[16] Posted by oscewicee on 12-11-2009 at 05:19 PM • top

Perhaps there is hope that, some day, the tide will turn inside TEC.

Stranger things have happened.

[17] Posted by Br_er Rabbit on 12-11-2009 at 09:29 PM • top

Thanks, Jeff (#10).

You’re right.  That’s THREE liberal states in a row that have now rebuffed the SSM movement.  And of course, you could add CA, if you go back even further.

It’s not over until it’s really over.  Unfortunately, with a seige mentality being all too common among those of us on the conservative side of the Culture War, we have a regrettable tendency at times to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

And yes, Br_er Rabbit (#17), that also applies to TEC too.

David Handy+

[18] Posted by New Reformation Advocate on 12-12-2009 at 10:52 AM • top

To #6: Here here!!

[19] Posted by DavidSh on 12-12-2009 at 11:20 PM • top

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