The California Supreme Court in a 4-3 decision on May 15, 2008 ruled that same-sex couples have the same right to marry as do opposite sex couples according to the California Constitution.While gays celebrated throughout the state, angry Christian Right poohbahs and organizations declared they will fight this ruling and they will win. As one Christian rightist said under his breath, "No goddamn queer's gonna marry another goddamn queer if I can help it!"
The Christian Right has long complained that gay marriage is a humongous threat to traditional marriage. Many of those making the most noise have been hypocritical serial adulterers who actually have had little use for "traditional" marriage, or have been involved in criminal and unethical shenanigans, such as Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, Rush Limbaugh, John Hagee, etc.
But I've never been able to figure out exactly how gay marriage is a threat to traditional marriage. Christian Rightists like Pat Robertson, John Hagee, James Dobson and others never really explain the "threat," but instead refer to the Bible, which in their literalist view appears to be anti-homosexual and so they oppose gay marriage because they've concluded if the Bible is against homosexuals, then their god has to be against gay marriage, and their god can't seem to handle the problem by herself, so they've got to pitch in and beat up gays to help god keep good order in god's country, the U.S. of A.
Then again, maybe it just offends their sense of propriety. Or maybe they're unsure of their own sexuality and so gay marriage raises issues in their minds they'd rather not confront.
The California's Supreme Court ruling had some interesting things to say regarding a religious tie-in: "affording same-sex couples the opportunity to obtain the designation of marriage will not impinge upon the religious freedom of any religious organization, official, or any other person; no religion will be required to change its religious policies or practices with regard to same-sex couples, and no religious officiant will be required to solemnize a marriage in contravention of his or her religious beliefs."
But that's not really the problem for the Christian Right. The problem is that the Christian Right does not accept the overwhelming testimony of science that homosexuality is not a choice. In their view the Bible, as usual, trumps science: people choose to become homosexuals, therefore, homosexuality, as the Bible says in Leviticus is an "abomination," and thus homosexuals are deviants who must be denied their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The Christian Right wingnuts believe they have a mission to impose their religious beliefs on the rest of us or god will send down horrible plagues and other misfortunes to punish us.
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1 comment:
I would think that divorce and adultery are far greater threats to marriage than what gays do or don’t do. Has the traditional view of marriage between a man and a woman done anything to prevent the failure of such a large percentage of marriages? Why do so many prominent public figures keep getting caught violating their marriage vows? Is there something wrong with their concept of marriage? Maybe some like Newt, like it so much that they keep getting married and still fear that a gay marriage will harm their newest version of marriage. How does what one’s neighbor does in private, destroy my marriage, unless he does it with my wife? I am not sure that my neighbors do a lot of things in private that we would all appreciate. For all I know, they could be swinging from a moving fan during sex. They close their blinds so we can only guess. It isn’t our business anyway. They might be doing some of the same things that gay people do when in private. Who knows or cares, except the pornographers?
Bob
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