Roseville Couple Alters Marriage License

Judy and I love to talk politics. We love to go back and forth about the issues, the people involved in the campaigns, the cable news commentators. Sometimes, we have to scale back from the tv coverage and just switch to to home improvement shows instead. We also have many friends that tell us they hate to talk politics so they barely know it's an election year.

This year is not one of those years that we can afford to "sit this one out." Besides the all-important presidential election we have another one of those California Propositions to vote on that's about as big as it get for us. It's Proposition 8 and it's called the Marriage Amendment. It's simple, about 14 words, stating that only a marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.

Can you believe that it's come to this? A union that was ordained by God in the garden between Adam and Eve has come down to a vote that must pass or we'll see another chip away at the family that we have know for, well, forever. I have an example of some people who know this firsthand and have found out the hard way that our society is changing and not for the better.

Judy has a friend who lives in Sacramento and she has a son who got married at the end of August. When the marriage license was filled out it listed Party A and Party B where it's always been groom and bride. So the groom filled in his info in the party A section, but he hand wrote in groom crossing out the party A and he crossed out party B and wrote bride where his fiancee filled in her info.

They went ahead and got married. The bride's dad is a pastor and married them, but in the last week they were notified by the state that since they altered the application there license is invalid and they are not legally married in the eyes of the state. This means she can't change her name yet or join his benefits on a health plan as his wife. Now in God's eyes they are married, but nonetheless, they still have this hurdle.

Their story has made the news in Northern California and it's in the video above. I've posted my first you tube video. Woo hoo!!!

I'm not sure the route they're going to take, but the point is this is what its come down to. Everything that we have considered normal and have taken for granted as God-ordained or common sense is being thrown out the window and we now have to fight for.

For our friends who don't like to talk politcs, its becoming a lot less about politics and lot more about righteousness. We can't afford not to be kept abreast of what's going on in Washington and Sacramento. Talking politics in a way is more like defending our faith and what we hold to be truth. God's truth.

If you're at all like me, you have to be frustrated. We vote on these "big" proposition issues when they come our way and then a few months later a judge overturns the "will of the people" and claims it's "unconstitutional." It's discouraging, but we can't give up. God calls us to not run from our culture, but rather engage it and make a difference.

We can't sit out November 4 and do nothing. We need to vote again and again for marriage the way God has laid it out. Be ready to defend your position if asked by a neighbor or a work associate and pray that God will stir in the hearts of those sitting on the fence.