FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Lake Saint Louis, July 10, 2015
Missouri State Senator Bob Onder released the following statement:
Governor Jay Nixon’s recent remarks and Executive Order 15-04 on same-sex “marriage” constitute an attack by the Governor on the freedom of religion and conscience rights of Missourians.
The Governor quotes approvingly Justice Anthony Kennedy in the Obergefell decision: “The right of same-sex couples to marry that is part of the liberty promised by the Fourteenth Amendment is derived, too, from that Amendment’s guarantee of the equal protection of the laws.”
To make or approve of such a statement, the Court and the Governor must ignore both our Constitutional history and the will of the people. The Court’s new “right” was never contemplated by the drafters of the Constitution or the Fourteenth Amendment. This “right” never existed in any jurisdiction until fifteen years ago. Then Attorney General Nixon supported the 2004 Missouri Marriage Amendment, which passed with 71% of the vote. And between 1998 and 2012 thirty states defined marriage as between one man and one woman.
The radical redefinition of marriage is a pure act of judicial will by five unelected Supreme Court justices. It is deeply disappointing that Governor Nixon tells us this act of judicial supremacy must be imposed on every Missourian.
The Governor further calls for the passage of the Missouri Non-Discrimination Act (MONA). This misguided legislation would guarantee that Missouri small businesses would be persecuted by lawsuits for refusal to participate in same-sex “marriages.” Such litigation is not theoretical: it has been vigorously pursued by gay rights activists in cities and states that have MONA-like statutes, including the recent high-profile case of Oregon bakers Aaron and Melissa Klein, who were sued out of business when they were ordered to pay $135,000 for refusing to supply a wedding cake for a same-sex “marriage.”
Clearly both the five Justices in the Obergefell decision and Governor Nixon chose the policy preference of our secular elites over our religious conscience rights contained in the US Constitution. Already Americans across the country, including in Texas and Kansas, are taking action to protect their unalienable rights. Missourians will do likewise. In the Legislature we must do all we can to secure the freedom of religion and conscience rights of our churches, our pastors, and all Missourians.
