Michael Geer, an Elizabethtown resident and president of the Pennsylvania Family Institute, called the ruling "very troubling'' and predicted "the institution of marriage has the great potential of being undermined.''

On the other hand, Laura Montgomery Rutt of the Alliance for Tolerance and Freedom called it "a great day for all people because the Supreme Court has recognized that our government has no place in our bedrooms.''

The 6-3 majority opinion, handed down by the Supreme Court in Washington Thursday, not only overturned a Texas statute but effectively swept away state laws in 12 other states that ban certain sexual acts, even if between consenting adults.

The ruling will have no impact on the laws of Pennsylvania, according to Lancaster County District Attorney Donald Totaro.

Geer said he feared Friday's ruling will set a bad precedent.

He believes it is only a matter of time before same-sex marriage becomes the law of the land.

"In short order gay rights and anti-family organizations could push for same-sex marriages to be made legal, or the legalization of prostitution or drug use, using the Texas ruling as a precedent,'' said Geer.

A day after the ruling, the Rev. Dan Allen, minister of Bible Fellowship Church of Ephrata, on Diamond Station Road in Ephrata, said he is pondering how he is going to tell his parishioners that perhaps the "war is over and we have lost.''

Allen called the ruling "an abomination against God.''

"We have often said we are living in an decadent society,'' said Allen.

"The question now is how do we react to that? How do we live in a society where blatant sin against God is the standard? How do react to a court that tells us that obviously what God has said doesn't matter anymore?''

The Rev. Daniel M. Long, associate pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity, 31 S. Duke St., said the court made the right decision.

"Our church doesn't have a view on this particular issue, but my own feeling is they are correct in their ruling,'' said Long, whose 273-year-old church numbers 1,500 people.

He said the law the court overturned has to do with a specific sexual act, which can apply to both homosexuals and heterosexuals. He said it is the partners themselves that have the right to make a personal determination, and it should be a mutual one.

"What we would stress in the church is that sexual behavior has to be responsible, caring and a celebration of our bodies, not something that denigrates our bodies or the other person's dignity,'' he said. That, he said, is more important than the court "defining what specific acts that are agreed on are incorrect or correct.''

Loyde "Bud'' Hartley, professor of religion and society at Lancaster Theological Seminary in Lancaster, also said today the court made the right decision.

"I am really pleased,'' said Hartley, who has been a faculty member for 32 years.

"It reflects, I think, society's growing acceptance of G.L.B. (gay, lesbian, bisexual) people, and I think the court made a highly moral and appropriate decision.''

Hartley, the seminary's academic dean from 1976 to 1981, said his school has admitted openly gay students since the late 1970s.

He said he believes all faculty members at his school would agree with the court as well. The school has some 225 students and a staff of more than 40, including faculty, administrators and others, according to the school's Web site.

"We have taken the stand that sexual preference is not a criteria for God calling people to ministry and they (gay people) are called,'' he said.

Across town at Lancaster Bible College, President Peter W. Teague is telling students the Supreme Court has erred and they should turn to Scripture to find "God's design for sexuality.''

"The Supreme Court ruling does not overrule what God says in the Scriptures,'' said Teague, who leads a college that enrolls 750 students.

The Rev. Steve Kilgore, a pastor at 2,300-member Calvary Church, 1051 Landis Valley Road, said the Supreme Court simply lacks vision of the higher law that governs humanity.

He noted that the decision, although a setback to Christians, does not sway God's law or God's determination.

"I don't believe that one court decision should make us throw our hands up and think society is no longer worth investing our interest in,'' said Kilgore.

"Society will not be transformed by more laws, but by individuals being transformed. As individuals are committed to doing what is right, society is upheld,'' he said.

"The Supreme Court did the right thing,'' said Montgomery Rutt, executive director of the Alliance for Tolerance and Freedom, a Lititz nonprofit that supports gay rights.

"This is the biggest day ever in the gay rights movement,'' she said. "This is an incredible ruling in favor of privacy, and whether or not it is gay or lesbian people, it is limiting the government's right to invade privacy.''

She added that she would like to see U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum apologize for a statement he made in May that the Texas decision could lead to the legalization of incest, adultery, bigamy and polygamy.

"Rick Santorum should now realize how out of step he is,'' she said.

Geer said Santorum's remark was prophetic.

"This decision raises the question of (whether) states or communities have the ability to restrict sexual behavior in the area of things like incest, bigamy, or polygamy,'' he said.

Geer suggested that those who don't see this ruling as troubling should wake up and face history.

The 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion on demand in the United States, he insisted, was based on the same right of privacy argument that was the basis of Thursday's ruling.

"What will happen in 10 years? No one would have predicted when the court established the right of privacy in 1963 that that would have led to abortion on demand. Average observers might say, "Come on, that won't happen,' but the logic and the history suggests that that could happen,'' said Geer.



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