Jerry Brown is right; we cannot afford a civil institution that draws its definition from one or two religious groups and ignores the rights of individuals to the civil status as other citizens. It plants the seeds of mighty fractures in the national spirit.

If Congress were to make a Federal law defining marriage in terms of civil benefits and identity, as a common civil right, it would leave the churches to bless or condemn whom they please, as they have always busied themselves doing.

The whole thing is a bunch of ugly noise in a teacup.


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