As I’ve mentioned before, in general I’m ambivalent about gay marriage, but once in awhile some of the conservative rhetoric about it is so far over the top that even I get annoyed. Andrew Sullivan points to just such an example by Shaunti Feldhahn that appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
When the countries of pre-World War II Europe noticed Adolf Hitler’s emerging aggression, they said, “It’s not my business.” But, as we now know, it was their business. How much sorrow might have been prevented had they recognized that burying their head in the sand wouldn’t help?
Today, we are facing a Pandora-like threat that — once allowed to escape — can never be put back in the box. With activist judges rewriting the will of the people, it’s only a matter of time before gay marriages are declared legal nationwide.
First, I’d think that Al Qaeda and Muslim extremists are a bit more frightening than gays and lesbians who want to get married.
Second, Feldhahn is clueless. Let me see if I can summarize this particular argument — U.S. culture is on some sort of moral precipice and institutionalizing gay marriage will push the country off into the abyss. Okay, reality check — American culture is so far past the point of no return that even if Feldhahn were right, there’d be nothing to do about it.
When I was a teenager, the local radio station refused for months to play Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” because of the sexual allusion. The other day I turned on the same station and it was playing a rap song in which the male vocalists describe the various sexual positions his lover might want to assume. ABC has a show called “Wife Swap” for Christ’s sake. We crossed the point of no return long ago, and that general cultural change is driving the push for gay marriage not vice verse.
Source:
Wage war on gay threat to marriage. Shaunti Feldhahn, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 6, 2004.