There have been two main arguments presented by the opposing sides on the referendum to redefine marriage (Question 1).

Some of the religious people of Maine often quote the Bible as authoritative.

The militant secularists, including this newspaper, have quoted this nation’s document of separation, the Declaration of Independence, to make the case that “equality” demands support of same-sex marriage.

An older legal tradition, called natural law, precedes these approaches.

Years before the birth of the Christian Church, the great Roman jurist Cicero helped lay the foundation of law in western civilization.

He said: “True law is right reason in agreement with nature.

‘It is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting. … And there will not be different laws at Rome and at Athens, or different laws now and in the future, but one eternal and unchangeable law will be valid for all nations and at all times …”

This pre-Christian pagan agreed with the pre-Christian Greek, Aristotle, that law needs to be grounded in reality (A cannot be non-A) and nature, and “Nature’s God” (Jefferson).

Both Catholics (St. Thomas Aquinas’ “Summa”) and Protestants (C.S. Lewis’ “The Abolition of Man”) adopted these non-Christian insights into our civilization.

Wrong cannot be right, and marriage between same-sex people is not marriage.

Cicero made his stand to defend the Roman Republic against the tyranny of both the Caesars and the Roman mobs, even to the forfeit of his life.

In our own degraded modern times, the people of Maine, like Cicero, must find the wisdom and courage to defend the American Republic against the tyranny of moral relativism.

I urge voters not to deny the true law and the reality of our human nature, and vote no on Question 1.

Gayle Finkbeiner

Belgrade