Comments on: Maine Notaries Already Resigning After Being Told to Perform S-S Ceremonies or Risk Human Rights Lawsuits

By: Chairm

Chairm — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 11:46:38 +0000

Taken at face value, your comment, Duncan, shows why it would be unjust to require notaries to officiate or witness SSMs.

Absolutism is a weakness of SSM argumentation and so the totalitarian impulse does not surprise in the aftermath of SSM imposition.

On the other hand, SSM is not actually marriage but a falsehood that, at best, is presented as metaphorical marriage. T is not marriage but it may be superficially marriage-like.

The conflict is between the SSM idea and the marriage idea. Notaries ought to be free to decide for themselves as free citizens of this pluralistic society.

By: Duncan

Duncan — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 03:21:45 +0000

OldKing: here are the *requirements* of notaries public in Maine:
8 years of age
Resident of Maine or resident of adjacent state and be regularly employed or conduct a trade or business in Maine

Demonstrated proficiency with English language
Not convicted of crime punishable by imprisonment of one year or more, or of lesser offense incompatible with duties of a Notary during 10 years preceding date of application for new/renewed commission

Not had a Notary commission revoked for official misconduct in Maine or any other jurisdiction in five years preceding date of application

Hmmm....nothing about what you state. You might want to check out this for a quick overview....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notary_public#Maine

In fact, in many states, almost anyone can, with state approval solemnize a marriage ---some do it just once for a good friend or family member.

By: FemEagle

FemEagle — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 06:54:34 +0000

**You can't be a public official and refuse to obey the law.* Oh, really? Former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom did, when he violated state law and started handing out marriage licenses to gays in 2004, which is what started this whole gay-marriage farce in the first place. He decided that his will overrode the will of the people of California, who had voted to ban gay marriage, and golly, what happened to him? Nothing. When state lawyers tried to get him prosecuted, the judge they approached refused to do anything about it, also in violation of the law. (That judge, by the way, turned out to be gay, which didn't cloud his judgement in the LEAST, I'm sure). And Newsom is now the lieutenant governor of California. Which just goes to show - in the corrupt halls of what passes for California government, you can get away with anything - as long as you're nice to the gay community.

By: FemEagle

FemEagle — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 06:52:14 +0000

**You can't be a public official and refuse to obey the law* Oh, really? Former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom did, when he violated state law and started handing out marriage licenses to gays in 2004, which is what started this whole gay-marriage farce in the first place. He decided that his will overrode the will of the people of California, who had voted to ban gay marriage, and golly, what happened to him? Nothing. When state lawyers tried to get him prosecuted, the judge they approached refused to do anything about it, also in violation of the law. (That judge, by the way, turned out to be gay, which didn't cloud his judgement in the LEAST, I'm sure). And Newsom is now the lieutenant governor of California. Which just goes to show - in the corrupt halls of what passes for California government, you can get away with anything - as long as you're nice to the gay community.

By: Zack

Zack — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 05:32:30 +0000

It doesn't matter what the law says. People of faith should be allowed to run their businesses according to their beliefs.

And no this is NOTHING like the old racist Democrats who FORCED segregation unto business owners irregardless of what they thought about those issues.

By: OldKingBlog

OldKingBlog — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 04:25:10 +0000

Earth to Susan: Nonsense. A notary, like all public officials, has the duty to uphold all fundamental human institutions, in this case, traditional marriage, which means he or she MUST refuse to perform so-called same-sex "marriages." And this duty trumps any and all state laws that seek to remake such instiutions into legal fictions to serve the ideological pipe dreams of those who have confused cultural deterioration with freedom. If I were a notary, I would not blink my eyes at refusing to "marry" a same-sex couple and would continue to proudly perform opposite-sex weddings. Your and your side's ideological fantasies have no real moral force no matter how "legal" they may be. They are merely intellectual rubble left over from the "anything goes" days of the Sixties...

By: Will Fisher

Will Fisher — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:16:22 +0000

@OldKingBlog: actually, the notary's primary function is witnessing transactions involving signatures on documents (wills, power of attorney, real estate transactions, etc.). In Maine (as in Florida and South Carolina), Notaries may officiate weddings, but they are not require to do so. Weddings are NOT a primary function of a notary public. One notary featured in the article has never officiated a wedding. The other one does 30 or so a year because she is the deputy city clerk (and she has objections of SSM). Capiche?

By: Susan Rosenthal

Susan Rosenthal — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:09:08 +0000

Notaries public are licensed by the state, and they have to follow state laws. If they choose to officiate weddings, they must serve everyone according to the law. If they do not want to do this, then they need to stop officating at weddings.

By: OldKingBlog

OldKingBlog — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:05:46 +0000

Actually, Will, that notary serves TWO functions: first and foremost, his job as a public official is to preserve and uphold fundamental human institutions like traditional marriage. Being a fundamental human institution, the preservation of traditional marriage trumps ideologically-contrived legal fictions like so-called same-sex marriage. And secondly, his job as an American public official is to ensure the preservation of these fundamental institutions in American society as well. Capiche?

By: LonesomeRhoades

LonesomeRhoades — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 19:59:15 +0000

Homosexuality is a perverse lifestyle choice.
Homosexual marriage is a fraud and consequently an impossible situation.
It is unnatural and sin.

By: Will Fisher

Will Fisher — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 19:42:18 +0000

So the Bangor Daily News can only find one notary out of some 25,000 statewide who has a hypothetical concern about the new law and his religious based objections to SSM. I say hypothetical because he's 78, so he's probably been a notary public for decades and he's never even been asked to do a wedding. In any case he serves as a function of the state, not his church.

By: Takahiro Hiroi

Takahiro Hiroi — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 19:36:44 +0000

Now, people who used to claim that SSM would not affect others should repent of telling a lie. This nation seems to be going staight to hell by legalizing SSM. The fact that marriage is between a man and a wife was so obvious that even the Constitution does not have to mention. This is a perfect example that sick people can twist anything natural.

By: Barb Chamberlan

Barb Chamberlan — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 18:50:07 +0000

The goal for the socialists is to do away with the Constitution altogether and replace it with a United Nations Nanny-State Charter. So far they're doing a fine job.

Will we let them turn our great country into a UN bureaucracy? Will shall see.

By: Sean

Sean — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 18:48:54 +0000

You can't be a public official and refuse to obey the law. There are plenty of other positions that would be more suitable for you if you have a religious objection to doing your job. Freedom of religion doesn't mean you have a right to keep your job if you won't obey the law and that's pretty much your entire job. We're talking about public officials performing a legal transaction that is in accordance with State law. How could a notary pulbic think for a moment that they would just be able to decide "oh I don't feel like following that law" and keep their job.

By: Duncan

Duncan — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 18:03:39 +0000

1st amendment is freedom 'of' and 'from' religion. You have a license from the state, you obey the rules.

By: Zack

Zack — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 17:51:19 +0000

So the first amendment means nothing in the eye's of the cultural left. I always knew this, but I didn't think they wanted to push it this far.

By: OvercameSSA

OvercameSSA — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:56:03 +0000

Strange times we live in where an express Constitutional right, i.e., the freedom to practice one's religion, is overpowered by a conjured up "right" by a new law. Can one of the homosexualists here explain how a law should override the Constitution?

By: NotALibertarian

NotALibertarian — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:49:23 +0000

So anyone who strongly sympathizes with traditional Christianity is being purged from civil service. Government bureaucrats were already becoming an army of apparatchiks with no use for the First Amendment. They run DC, which is why "God" and references to Christianity are being scrubbed from historic relics in our nation's capital. SSM is a "religious test" that insures that all levels of the government will be run by non-religious people. Guess what happens next?

By: Son of Adam

Son of Adam — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:28:09 +0000

Yet another example of how SS"M" doesn't affect anybody!