And Now Pennsylvania: "We Are a Better People Than What These Laws Represent"

Chris Morley has helpfully been posting links to the ruling striking down the ban on same-sex marriage in Pennsylvania a little while ago, including this link to the ruling itself. The picture at the head of the posting is from commentary by David Badash at The New Civil Rights Movement site. 

As he notes, in his ruling, Judge John E. Jones III, a Republican recommended to the bench by Rick Santorum and nominated by George W. Bush, concludes with the following ringing statement,

We are a better people than what these laws represent, and it is time to discard them into the ash heap of history.

Sounds right to me. And with each such affirmation and the joy so evident on the faces of couples long denied the right to marry, and on the faces of those who love them, the laments of the U.S. Catholic bishops sound ever more hollow, more beside the point. The bishops have dug themselves into a very deep hole by their refusal to engage the human lives of those who are gay in loving, constructive ways, and have thrown away their moral authority with both hands in the process.