I understand your position, marilyn, but I guess I'd disagree. An MD might have a passion for medicine and for people and I would say that your position would mean that the only people who should be doctors are people who are willing to perform abortions. I think that would omit a great number of caring, qualified people from our doctor pool. Same for pharmacists. And same for ministers.

I don't think that simply choosing to practice a profession obligates you to perform EVERY possible function that career might ever entail.

I've known ministers to refuse to marry couples they did not believe should be getting married. If their role is to be accountable to God, and they believed God was not in the situation, then I believe such a minister would have an obligation to decline to be a party to something they believed was not a holy union.

I have no idea if the judge is a racist or not. I know that when I was a kid in my small hometown, the only races were Hispanic and Caucasian, and neither race was all that interested in the idea of intermarriage. There were a lot of cultural differences that I think many people recognized would be a challenge. I absolutely could care less who marries whom, race-wise, but it is a truth that in some situations, like it or not, children of mixed marriages are sometimes treated poorly, even today. It's wrong and it shouldn't happen, so I'm not condoning it, and I didn't see a photo of this judge to know if he is from a much older generation... but if he *is* in his 70's or 80's, my guess is that he is basing his statements on experience. He's probably seen a lot of children harassed because they were bi-racial, and he has probably seen a lot of bi-racial couples divorce because the pressures of society strained their relationships to the point that they broke.

It's easy for us to sit in judgment and think someone needs to get with the times, but for a lot of people, I think that's easier said than done. Hopefully in another generation these types of thoughts won't even cross anyone's mind.