This week's testimony in the federal trial on the constitutionality of California's Prop 8 came from the only two witnesses for proponents of the ban on same sex marriage, Professor Kenneth Miller and Dr. David Blankenhorn.
In Ken Miller's cross examination by David Boies, he admitted co-authoring an article with Professor Bruce Kain that appeared in Dangerous Democracy, published in 2009. The article explains that minorities are targeted in the initiative process which can be fueled by prejudice, and that initiatives bypass the governmental checks and balances normally available to protect minorities. A great deal of the examination concerned the role of religious groups in passing Prop 8. The Courage Campaign chronicled the following exchange:
BOIES: As political scientist, do you believe that a religious majority should not be allowed to impose its views on a minority?
THOMPSON (for defense): Objection.
JUDGE WALKER: Overruled.
BOIES: From time to time in world history, religious majorities have been able to impose it religious principles on minority. Is that an undesirable way to organize society?
MILLER: As a general principle, yes.
BOIES: As a general principle that a religious majority should not be able to use law to impose its view on minority?
MILLER: Might be some exceptions, but yes.
BOIES: As you sit here now, can you think of a time when a religious majority used its power to impose its view and that was good?
MILLER: Abolitionists.
BOIES: Were abolitionist a majority?
MILLER: I don't know.
BOIES: They were not.
JUDGE WALKER: Counsel is attempting to understand the witness's views. If the witness would answer the questions directly, there would not be a need for these other questions.
THOMPSON: But world history was start of question, and I never raised that in direct.
JUDGE WALKER: This is cross-examination, Mr. Thompson. Objection overruled.
BOISE: As a general rule, is imposition of majority view by majority religion good for society?
MILLER: No.
Blankenhorn's testimony also appeared to contract some of his recent writings. Full transcripts are available at The American Foundation for Equal Rights' web site.
Gays 2nd to Murderers, Says Ex-Mormon.
8: The Mormon Proposition, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, is receiving a lot of attention. CNN interviewed ex-Mormons who were involved in the making of the film.
One talked about messages from President Spencer Kimball that were beamed into the chuches on Sundays during the 1980s:
Next to the sin of murder is the sin of sexual impurity, the sin of homosexuality.
He said that as an 8-year-old boy, these messages made him wonder if life was worth living.
More than 1,500 documents from Mormon archives were obtained by the filmmakers. These documents reveal the Mormon Church's strategy in dealing with gays, starting with its campaign to ban gay marriage in Hawaii.
Director Reed Cowan says that there is a blurring of the line between separation of church and state, and that the United States is a democracy, not a theocracy.
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