Well, faithful readers, October 12-18 (next week) has been declared the Defense of Marriage Week. You can find some basics at, naturally, MarriageProtectionWeek.com. Another decent site about what concerns marriage traditionalists is MarriageDebate.com.
This week has been declared in no small part to draw public awareness to the need for and benefits of traditional marriage under attack by homosexual activist organizations like Lambda Legal. The homosexual argument seems to be : "Since bad people suffer from bad decisions, we should force people to think like us." Darlene chose not to fulfill her work requirements? Let's marry gays! A young man has an altercation after "cruising" in the public showers? Let's redefine marriage! I'm not sure what "cruising" is, but if he did it to me, I'd probably beat his ass too. (No pun intended). Look! Instead of pursuing a proper life and seeking counseling for aberrant behavior, we chose to live with other men and have deviant sex a lot and now we can't see each in the hospital or pay each other's bills - Redefine society to please us! These arguments (?) are not convincing.
The "problem" of marriage is ultimately one of worldviews:
* If you think nothing of marriage - if everything we see and believe and interact with are human constructs of thought that our enlightened postmodern brains can now change with our every whim - well, why not change everything for those with the loudest voices? Why not fight and go to war with one another so the dominant culture will prevail? Will not-believing in my bullet keep it from destroying your body?
* If you think that human social constructs serve a purpose of stabilizing culture and allowing society a framework in which to operate and progress, then let's talk about not intentionally hurting people who choose the gay lifestyle and slowly and reasonably work on evolving our social constructs. In-your-face activism and fast action against the majority opinion on this (or any other) core societal issue will eventually end in civil war. No, homosexuals are not like black people.
* Of course, if you are a biblical Christian, you have very little room for debate. Homosexual activity is expressly prohibited in scripture and, as such, gays and lesbians should not be allowed to defame the sacred institution of marriage. Contrary to liberal belief, my religion is a part of me and has every right to influence my stands in the public square. Let your voice be heard.
Not all marriage defense is about gays. SGA-people have created the most pressing battle front, but they are only able to do this because so many heterosexual people have neglected and harmed marriage themselves. High divorce rates, cheating on spouses, neglecting children - all have been rising for years, but only get the tsch-tsch from conservatives and Christians. People of faith are now (as a large group) waking up only because gays are forcing themselves through the system and more directly affecting the institutions and constructs we hold dear. It is good that we have responded to the "yuck factor," but it is sad that we did not do more to convince secular heterosexuals regarding the importance of marriage.
Over the next week, I will be posting several things that are related to the theme of marriage and the issues the subject inspires. Faithful readers, you have all weekend to get your thinking caps on . . . Marriage Smackdown 2003 begins next week!
P.S.
"The bullet comment" was more about postmodernists and civil war than about homosexuals. Please do not shoot any homosexuals this weekend because you think I said so. If you do, I will kick your ass as well. It is a shame I even have to think about posting this. Morons.