Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list
Posted on 05/20/2004 12:56:33 PM PDT by NYer
Cultural tsunamis, like those that begin under oceans, are caused by something deep within. When high water hits the shore, it is the result of a subterranean earthquake. When the state of Massachusetts last Monday began offering marriage to people of the same sex, this ‘‘wave’’ was preceded by a seismic shift in the moral tectonic plates.
The Old Testament Book of Judges — part of a wisdom and truth long discarded by the ‘‘In Dow Jones we trust’’ crowd — said it best: ‘‘In those days there were no kings and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.’’ Once that shift has taken place in sufficient numbers, once we become indifferent to immutable truths, the floodtide is not a matter of if but when.
Legally, the shift began in 1993 when the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that barring same-sex couples from ‘‘marrying’’ might violate the state constitution’s prohibition on sexual discrimination and must be justified by a compelling reason. Morally, the earthquake occurred much earlier.
The shift from personal responsibility, accountability, putting the greater good before personal pleasure, affluence and ‘‘feelings,’’ and what once was known as ‘‘the fear of God’’ began following World War II. Consumption and pleasure replaced self-control and acting on behalf of the general welfare. Trying to remind us of the benefits of restraint in 1979 (when it was already too late), the late Bishop Fulton J. Sheen delivered an address in Washington in which he asked how a football field is defined. ‘‘By its boundaries,’’ he said. There are now no boundaries in America. Any rule is potentially viewed as oppressive and any law — whether legal or moral — is up for debate, negotiation and overturning if it impedes a single individual from fulfilling his or her desire.
A Utah polygamist challenged his conviction before the state supreme court, employing the ‘‘reasoning’’ behind the same-sex ‘‘marriage’’ law in Massachusetts in arguing his ‘‘rights’’ have been denied.
Who is to say the polygamist, Tom Green, is wrong when the boundaries have been removed? On what legal or moral basis will people who wish to marry more than one person, or a close relative, be denied their wish?
The former governor of Oregon, Neil Goldschmidt, admits to having had sex with a 14-year-old girl when he was mayor of Portland. In most places that’s called statutory rape, but the Oregonian newspaper at first chose to categorize it as adultery. Even adultery and statutory rape might soon be up for elimination as ‘‘stigmas’’ because the concepts will be found to be biblically based and, thus, deemed unconstitutional by activist judges who see themselves as demigods.
Does that idea outrage you? Perhaps you think that will never happen. It goes too far. That was once said of same-sex marriage. The International Olympic Committee last Monday cleared transsexuals to compete in the Olympics for the first time providing their new gender has been legally recognized and they have gone through a minimum two-year period of postoperative hormone therapy. Thank goodness some standard remains.
‘‘Pro-family’’ groups have given it their best shot, but this debate is over. They would do better to spend their energy and resources building up their side of the cultural divide and demonstrating how their own precepts are supposed to work. Divorce remains a great threat to family stability, and there are far more heterosexuals divorcing and cohabiting than homosexuals wishing to ‘‘marry.’’ If conservative religious people wish to exert maximum influence on culture, they will redirect their attention to repairing their own cracked foundation. An improved heterosexual family structure will do more for those families and the greater good than attempts to halt the inevitable. A topical solution does not cure a skin disease whose source is far deeper.
Paul the Apostle long ago saw what happens when people remove boundaries: ‘‘For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.’’ (2 Timothy 4:3).
That day has arrived like a tsunami in Massachusetts and soon in the other 49 states. It’s because of the earthquake that cracked our foundation.
Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist and a host on Fox News Channel. Readers may also leave e-mail at www.calthomas.com. His column appears on Tuesday and Thursday.
Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list
Ping!
I'm hoping this will be John Kerry's undoing. The VAST MAJORITY of Americans are opposed to same sex marriages. This crap started in John Kerry's home state - him and Ted Kennedy! John Kerry says he's for marriage of a man and a woman but he supports "civil unions". He's at it again, trying to have it both ways. Also, Kerry refused to sign the marriage protection pledge or whatever you call it.
Wow! I had no idea - thanks for tip-off. Does this have anything to do with the Olymipcs being held in Greece?
Lemme get this straight: in the eyes of the Olympic Committee, she-males/he-womyn can take hormones to alter their bodies, but men/women can't take steroids to alter their bodies?
=== I'm hoping this will be John Kerry's undoing
Why only John Kerry's undoing?
Because Bush reserves the right for any state to recognize "civil unions" as they see fit and preserves the Word "marriage" for heteros, he gets a pass?
=== Homosexuality is not a sex, it is degeneracy of one or other of the two actual sexes.
A more sound argument would be that it negates the procreative nature of sex while retaining only the unitive.
(As does sex between heterosexuals using birth control.)
Forget the ensuing quakes as homosexual marriage and "civil unions" progressed in certain states. Fact is the seismic shift came once heterosexuals rendered children an "option" of marital union.
As Justice Thomas predicted, "traditional" ( my term of art) polygamists will now sue to get their lifestyle legitimized, but they will fail, because polygamy has no PC clout, no press, no buzz..But just wait, because one day in the near future, three men and /or three women will sue to be legally married...that's when the Apocalypse hits the fan..
This country deserves same sex marriage for kicking God out.
"negates the procreative nature of sex while retaining only the unitive"
No, there is no unitive nature, either. There are no complementary parts to unite. What do lesbians try to unite, anyway?
Is this a blue-red divide?
But Bush wants to take the issue away from the courts. That's the key element. At the point a majority of the people actually WANT civil unions, we are doomed anyway. The problem is having this forced on us when the people do not want it. Yes it's wrong either way, but our gov't is a gov't of the people. That's important too.
"the Olympic Committee, she-males/he-womyn can take hormones to alter their bodies, but men/women can't take steroids to alter their bodies?"
Thus self-destructs the idea of meaningful competition. How can a woman compete with someone who grew to full stature under the influence of male hormones (bone and muscle structure, etc) even if he has been taking female hormones for the past two years?!?
Bad format ping
Bugs Bunny as Teddy Roosevelt, right?
Yup! And Yosemite Sam as himself! Bugs said he spoke softly and carried a big stick and then Yosemite said my tagline and starts wacking him with his stick. It seemed perfect.
Askel, chemical or barrier contraception tends to dehumanize the conceived as 'an accident to be avoided', but I don't argue with a person's individual right to avoid pregnancy by whatever means. I DO argue with those who dehumanize a newly conceived alive individual human being as something to be disposed of. Sexual reproduction is accomplished via the union of two sexes via their gametes. There are only two sexes in the human species. That some degenerates have achieved court recognition of their chosen sexual proclivities as if a separate sex identity is absurd on the face of it and the reason I believe such judges should be impeached and removed for societal engineering not judicial work.
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