Well, apparently I overslept today, and while I was out of it, Congress managed to turn our country into a utopia. They must have:
- eradicated crime,
- addressed the disparity between rich and poor in health care,
- secured our borders,
- rendered us safe from terrorism or any other external harm,
- solved the drug problem,
- procured a source of free, renewable energy and
- fixed our ailing school system.
I mean, otherwise why would they be wasting our time and tax dollars proposing the 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reads,
- Marriage in the United States of America shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman.
- Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman.
(H.J. Res. 106 (108th Congress 2004) and S.J. Res. 40 (108th Congress 2004)
Wow. Little did I know that gay marriage was such an insidious cultural evil, so heinous and destructive that it requires a Constitutional Amendment, and that it casts such a shadow over our way of life that all our other concerns pale in comparison.
I should watch Fox News more often, I suppose.
This is nothing more than a cheap move to appease the “Christian Right” in this country, an organization composed of various self-righteous hypocritical narrow-minded zealots who feel that the world is doomed unless everyone believes as they do and practices as they say.
Of course, these were the people who had a large hand in getting W into office. After all, what better way to advance your agenda than have the President of the United States in bed with you? It’s not like this guy got the office on charm or political aptitude. He’s a talking monkey, and the Religious Right has a firm grip on the string in his back.
With things falling apart for the Republican party (they may lose the House in next month’s midterms) and an ineffectual President with nothing of merit to show, it’s time for some fireworks to appease the Family Values crowd.
So what’s the real point of this? Well, supporters say it’s to “defend the sanctity of marriage.” Really? What sanctity? Last time I checked, America has a divorce rate holding steady at 50%, the highest in the industrialized world. Marriage between straight folks is considered trivial and something to be walked out on at the first sign of trouble.
Fix that and we can start bitching about gay marriage. After all, exactly how are Ken and Todd going to cause the collapse of Life As We Know it by getting married? I challenge anyone to find me statistics proving that committed gay couples are likely to commit any sort of crime at greater (or even equal) rates than their straight counterparts.
(space reserved for the sound of crickets chirping)
This isn’t about morality, dogma or even marriage. It’s not even about homophobia. It’s about power. The Religious Right seems to think that their agenda is the One Truth and that everyone should be forced to live by it. This sort of thing has to be pushed very carefully and quietly, but they’ve had wins on this front in several states.
But a Constitional Amendment? That’s the home run. Notice that it over-rides all states’ rights to allow their own definitions of marriage. Nice way of steamrollering the 10th Amendment, isn’t it?
This is a way to quietly set up several nasty precedents, and this is why, regardless of your moral leanings or views on sexuality, you need to be worried. This is about how one special-interest group can get so powerful to advance its own agenda into a Federal law that trumps the rights of the States (and by extension, the individual).
This isn’t about Ken and Todd. This is about all of us. They won’t stop with this. Next, it’ll be prayer in schools. Then book banning, and the advancement of a religious-inflenced curriculum (see Intelligent Design for an ugly example). Then network censorship.
How about an Amendment to ban the writings of Darwin, or Einstein, or Bohr? The question will eventually come up, “whose religion?” That’ll be followed by, “which version?” We’ll have the next Council of Nicea in Washington Square, and the government will decide which churches are acceptable. Lord help those who aren’t Protestant Christians.
This may seem like a minor issue, and it will likely be shot down, but they’ll keep trying. Even if they lose, they’ll be emboldened by the attention they’ve gotten, not to mention just how close they came to dictating the ultimate law of this country.
You don’t taste that kind of power and walk away.
The first ten words of the Bill of Rights read: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.
What part of this is so unclear?