Justice is faith-based
In Equal Justice Under the Law , Sojourner's Jim Wallis has observed a strange irony in this week's U.S. Supreme Court rulings. First, on June 25, the court struck down as unconstitutional a part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 intended to maintain free voting access for low-income and people of color. Many of my friends in justice ministries were shocked at this ruling. When I first saw the headlines, I really thought it was a joke, or that someone had accidently brought up a news article from the 1930s. The next day the same court also thwarted two laws that had prevented same-sex marriage, the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California's Proposition 8, the "Marriage Defense Act". While recognizing that many Christians have deep concerns about homosexuality, based on their reading of the Bible, Wallis has joined a growing number of religious people who support same-sex marriage as a matter of civil rights. After all, legal marriage in the U.S