Posted by Another “exclusive commentary” from the WorldNutDaily, which, as usual, means that no one else would publish such a ridiculous article so they get exclusive access to it. This one is from P. Andrew Sandlin, the president of something called the Center for Cultural Leadership, and is called In Praise of Discrimination. It’s pretty standard stuff from the religious right, mostly silly arguments based on bad history, sprinkled with responses to crude caricatures of “liberal beliefs” – the straw man seems to be God’s own favorite fallacy. He begins his argument against gay marriage the same ironic way everyone else does, by extolling the virtues of marriage:
Marriage is a bedrock of Western culture. Without marriage, our culture would simply have been impossible.
Oh no! Marriage is a good thing! But since no one is proposing to get rid of marriage, of what possible relevance is this? In fact, since what is being proposed is an increase in the number of marriages, not a decrease, isn’t this an argument FOR gay marriage? As the great libertarian legal theorist Richard Epstein put it in response to this same argument from the President:
When President Bush, for example, talks about the need to “protect” the sanctity of marriage, his plea is a giant non sequitur because he does not explain what, precisely, he is protecting marriage against. No proponent of gay marriage wants to ban traditional marriage, or to burden couples who want to marry with endless tests, taxes and delays.
But Sandlin isn’t done yet. To this bad reasoning we have to add some even worse history:
The family is the cornerstone of civilization, and marriage is the foundation of the family – ancient pagan cultures given to polygamy, incest and tribalism were nomadic, fierce and self-destructive. They did not produce – could not produce – anything like a sustained, stable social order.
Hmmm. Ancient cultures given to polygamy and tribalism (no culture that I know of has ever endorsed incest)….you know, only one springs to mind immediately – the Israelites! If the ancient Hebrew culture was not “given to polygamy and tribalism”, then those words will have to be redefined. Now, to this bad reasoning and bad history we have to add attacks on a straw man of his opponents’ beliefs:
This should not surprise us. We now live in an era of moral egalitarianism – the absolute equality of all moral positions. This egalitarianism stimulated some liberals after 9-11 to criticize the media’s use of the word “terrorist” to describe the Islamic hijackers who murdered nearly 3,000 Americans.
Like who, Mr. Sandlin? Name “some liberals” who said such a thing? I bet you can’t. In fact, name a “liberal” who argues for actual moral egalitarianism? If they believed in moral egalitarianism, they would not be able to criticize conservative moral positions, could they? But let’s not let a little reality ruin a perfectly good straw man. That would be tragic.
Perusing Sandlin’s website, christianculture.com, turns up all sorts of gems. He is, it appears, a true theocrat. There’s no reason to stop with gay marriage, he wants all of biblical law to apply in the US:
God does judge homosexuals and secularists (e.g., Rom. 1!), not just Christians and the church, and to limit His judgment to the church is to imply a limitation of His sovereignty. But God’s law and its concomitant judgments are not merely for the Church. They’re for everybody (Rom. 3:19).
I assume, then, that Mr. Sandlin would be consistent in applying biblical law to marriage in America and passing a constitutional amendment to do all of the following:
1. Allow polygamy. Lots of verses.
2. Allow American soldiers to take women in conquered lands as their wives whether the woman agrees or not. Deut 21:10-13.
3. Stone any woman who is not a virgin on her wedding day (doesn’t apply to men, of course). Deut 22:13-21.
4. Require that if a man dies before impregnating his wife, his brother must marry her (even if he’s already married, but since polygamy is okay, it’s not a problem) and impregnate her. Deut 25:5-10.
5. Ban marriage between those of different religions. 2Cor 6:14.
If we’re gonna have biblical marriage, then by God, let’s have biblical marriage.
July 17, 2004
July 17, 2004
July 18, 2004
July 19, 2004