Jessica’s arguments and sarcasm have certainly helped me to understand how I, a Catholic, should feel regarding this recent court ruling.

I used to think that same-sex legal marriage somehow threatened the sanctity of marriage.

I now realize how little weight the term “civil marriage” really carries.

It is, as Jessica explained, just a legal contract issued by the government.

And our United States government is a man-made institution destined to fade away into history as all others have before it.

Thankfully, there is separation of church and state. Not to protect the state from religion, but to protect religion from the state.

We do not have to worry about a man-made and transitory institution denigrating the sanctity of marriage — because it never had the power to so in the first place.

However, as a Catholic, I still have a duty to work towards social justice, and I will still vote for a ban on same-sex civil marriage if it is presented.

If through all of my experiences, reasoning and observation, I believe that the tenets of my religion are truthful, then it is my duty to act on my convictions.

Jessica does the exact same thing concerning her world view. The only difference is that she may not call it a religion.

It would be very arrogant for someone to say that my best attempts to reason the truths of the universe are not good enough compared to hers, so her convictions can be acted upon in her civil participation in the government but mine cannot.

We Christians strive to view everyone as a brother or sister in Christ.

As that love requires, we must spend our lives helping each other, in the private and public stages.

As Christ himself said: “Have you not read that… a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”

Luke Klosterman

Sophomore

Materials engineering