Persecuting Heretics

The court ruling against Proposition 8 makes me think of a few things.

1. Fascism as a religion as Jonah Goldberg asserts.


2. The HHS ruling in favor of contraception in all health plans.


3. The Susan G. Komen spat with Planned Parenthood.


4. Religious schisms over tiny doctrinal matters leading to persecution.


5. What was the point of it all if not enforcing religious orthodoxy?

Persecuting heresy is all about controlling thought. When it comes to the mechanics of daily life like growing corn or selling cows, it doesn't really matter whether you believe in the Trinity or not. It seems like a wild overreaction to kill people and burn villages over the matter. Similarly, discarding votes at the statewide level, jamming insurance coverage down unwilling throats for tiny procedures and threats of excommunication over minuscule donations would appear to be disproportionate to the payoff.

Unless the whole thing is religious in nature and then it makes sense.

Is disenfranchising the voters of California worth a legal definition for gays that can be replaced any number of ways? Is it worth angering tens of millions of Catholics to cover twenty five cent condoms in insurance policies? Does a $500K donation to a $1B abortion mill show up as anything other than a rounding error on the bottom line?

If it isn't a religious issue, then what is it? We just threw out the results of an election for ... what?

Do these folks seem sufficiently repressed to warrant discarding an election?