Even though the US Supreme Court earlier ruled that same-sex marriage is now legal throughout the United States, Christian televangelist and "The 700 Club" host Pat Robertson said on Monday the act is actually still illegal.
There are actually some who are insisting that the Bible passage Romans 13:1-4 is a de facto support for same-sex marriage, according to WND. It reads: "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same."
But as far as Robertson is concerned, it is wrong for people to misinterpret the Bible. "The Supreme Court has issued a ruling. In the legal system, 'Party A' says to 'Party B' over marriage, 'I want to get married to them,' and the court says, 'Okay, you can get married.' That doesn't mean I have to get married to a homosexual. It doesn't mean you have to, nor does it mean it's the law of the land," he reasoned.
"Congress didn't pass any law. Your state legislature didn't pass a law. So you're not under anything. It's a decision of the court having to do with a couple of people. Now they would like to make it bigger than that but, in terms of the Constitution, it isn't," he further said.
Robertson's thoughts were similar to the ones earlier made by Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee and Rowan county clerk Kim Davis, who was sent to jail because she refused to sign same-sex marriage licences.
In protest against the Supreme Court's historic June 26 ruling, Huckabee used the same logic Martin Luther King Jr. used to overcome racism.
"I don't think a lot of pastors and Christian schools are going to have a choice. They either are going to follow God, their conscience and what they truly believe is what the scripture teaches them, or they will follow civil law," Huckabee said. "They will go the path of Dr. Martin Luther King, who in his brilliant essay, the letters from a Birmingham jail, reminded us, based on what St. Augustine said, that an unjust law is no law at all. And I do think that we're going to see a lot of pastors who will have to make this tough decision."
