CALL IT WHAT IT IS"A RELIGIOUS WAR!
by Ed Menken
George W. Bush's effort to pass a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage clearly establishes him as the Crusader-in-Chief in what must finally be recognized as a genuine religious war right here in the United States .
Those pundits, talking heads, reporters and columnists, of whatever leaning, who have been using the term "social conservatives" need to acknowledge that the more fitting and accurate reference for that group in today's real world is "religious zealots", and the so-called "culture war" isn't about culture, but about religion and the extremist beliefs that too many Christian evangelicals and fundamentalists are determined to impose on the entire country, no matter what.
The public hysteria that erupted among religious radicals since the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that denying same-sex couples the right to marry is unconstitutional, is only the latest demonstration of an unmistakable determination to turn this country into a de-facto theocracy. The continuing battles over a woman's right to choose, school prayer, displays of the Ten Commandments in government buildings, stem-cell research, and the teaching of creationism vs. evolution, all represent an undeniable strategy to destroy the secular nature of the nation that the founders unequivocally intended. And, like other tyrannical despots before them, the leaders of this religious war are inciting their "soldiers" with a propaganda campaign filled with distortions, revisionist history, deceit, and irrationality.
Those who revel in bigotry and discrimination, while justifying their actions as "biblically ordered", claim that same-sex marriage would be a precursor to the acceptance of polygamy, pedophilia, and even bestiality, but none of those are analogous. Polygamy, pedophilia and bestiality are all crimes, and one must assume that anyone charged with such crimes will be treated equally under the law, whether they are black or white, male or female, gay or straight. Accordingly, there is no presumption of discrimination. Conversely, the only crime that can be associated with marriage is bigamy, and that, like polygamy, carries an assumption of non-discrimination. On the other hand, same-sex marriage is a simple question of civil rights vs. discrimination; should two adults, whatever their gender, have the same rights and privileges to marry under civil law? The debate is not about religiously sanctioned marriage. No church, synagogue, or mosque could be forced to perform marriage ceremonies in this country. But it should be clear to any rational person that to deny any right to some, which is otherwise afforded to all the rest, is intrinsically no different than requiring that certain people cannot sit at the same lunch counter, or in the same part of the bus, as others. It's clear that some among us still believe that discrimination is not only acceptable, but necessary, at least some of the time, when it suits their prejudices.
Same-sex marriage is no threat to heterosexual marriage, or to civilization. And it certainly isn't going to effect some pretentious assignment of "sanctity" to an "institution" that already sees half of those who enter it, leave it through divorce. But those descendants of the bigotry that prevented interracial couples from marrying until a few decades ago are now marshalling their weapons and threatening to embody discrimination into the very Constitution that already guarantees the opposite.
The developing conflict over same-sex marriage, because of the level of vehemence on the part of the religious zealots, could well be the deciding battle of the religious war in this country. For if all those who truly believe in democracy over theocracy, and in civil rights over discrimination, let their voices be heard and their ballots counted, then the war against religious tyranny will be won, and the self-righteous "warriors" who want to impose their beliefs on the rest of us will be left with no one to influence or threaten but themselves. And we will have fulfilled that solemn American oath, to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States , against all enemies, foreign or domestic-- An oath, by the way, that one may either swear to or affirm, since the Constitution also says that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States ." Amen!
