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Recognizing Strategic Defeat in the Morality Wars Over What Constitutes
Right and Wrong
By
Carman Bradley
Feminist
Diana Alstad calls the ideological struggle against heterosexism the “planetary battle” or the “morality wars” over “who has the right to decide what’s right?”[i]
Linked to the outcome of the morality
wars are the dominant societal and governance views on abortion, premarital
sex, extra-marital sex, homosexual sex, procreation, marriage and family. And here the enactment of same-sex marriage symbolizes
the full defeat of heterosexism as an influence upon state governance. The new homosexist state no longer entertains
the voice of “heterosexist” morality because in the state’s new worldview there
is no ideal. In homosexism morality is
situational and experiential, not absolute, certainly not religious. The guiding principles are taken from
homosexual culture - non-judgmentalism (amoralism), liberalism,
experimentalism, inclusiveness, and indifference. The homosexist goal of obtaining zero societal
discrimination requires that there be no social standard or model.
Well
before the same-sex marriage enactment Melinda Ledden Sidak of Independent Women’s Forum described the
setbacks already endured by social conservatives as a result of the sexual
liberation and feminist movements (both social phenomena hugely
prejudiced by the motives and values of the homosexual liberation movement):
Women, the traditional enforcers of sexual morality, abandoned
their posts in the 1960s and 1970s under the onslaught of the sexual
revolution…Due to woman’s ‘promiscuity,’ man no longer has any reason to
respect her or treat her well. Instead
he succumbs to his basest instincts, sleeping with her and rejecting the
consequences, refusing to marry or cheating on her when he does, and eventually
divorcing her guiltlessly to seek out younger prey. Clearly, marriage cannot survive without
premarital virginity, chaste womanhood, chivalrous maleness, a return to
traditional gender roles within marriage, and public vilification of every
alternative. In short, marriage cannot
exist without every advance of the women’s movement systematically reversed.”[ii]
According to feminist Dalma Heyn,
for those victorious liberated heterosexual
women who choose to marry, their sexual curriculum vitae looks something like
this:
The average young woman – working, assertive personally and
professionally – is comfortable with independence, employment, autonomy, and
multiple sexual relationships. She began
having sex, according to the newest Kinsey Institute Report, between the
(median) ages of sixteen and seventeen.
If she marries at the age of twenty-seven, then, she will have been
making love – with one man or several, simultaneously or serially, alone or
cohabitating – for a decade. She is used
to pleasure as to pleasing, and envisions having both in equal measure in an
egalitarian marital relationship.[iii]
In
Together Forever: Gay and Lesbian
Marriage, author Eric Marcus
acknowledges that society is at a strategic cross road over marriage
redefinition. After rejecting “those who believe that granting gay and
lesbian people the legal right to marry will somehow destroy family life,”[iv]
he simply claims marriage access as a constitutional right. Ironically, his earlier book The Male Couple’s Guide: Finding a Man,
Making a Home, Building a Life exposes the paradoxical notion of marriage
in homosexual culture. He promotes
promiscuity and monogamy in the same breath:
Relationships change, circumstances change, people change. Men who entered relationships planning to be
monogamous may not find that the arrangement suits them. Men who started a relationship agreeing to
nonmonogamy may find over time that that arrangement isn’t working out. That’s why it’s important to leave the door open
to discussion about the ground rules of your relationship.[v]
He
sets out examples of grounds rules which entreat a unique definition of
same-sex union and against marriage redefinition:
(1) Sex with other partners is allowed, but must be kept secret. (2) Sex with other partners is allowed, but
must be discussed. (3) Sex is not
permitted with mutual friends. (4) Only
anonymous sexual encounters are permitted.
(5) Sex is permitted only when one partner is out of town. (6) Sex with other partners is not permitted
at home. (7) Sex with other partners is
permitted at home, but not in the couple’s bedroom. (8) Outside sex is permitted, but only when
both partners choose a third to join them.[vi]
Maggie
Gallagher, author of Abolition of
Marriage, summarizes the strategic victory for what should be labeled
“homosexism” or “state sponsored indifference”:
Over the past thirty years, American family law has been rewritten
to dilute both the rights and obligations of marriage, while at the same time
placing other relationships, from adulterous liaisons to homosexual
partnerships, on a legal par with marriage in some respects. To put it another way, by expanding the
definition of marriage to the point of meaninglessness, courts are gradually
redefining marriage out of existence.[vii]
In response to gay activism of the 80’s and
early 90’s, Kristi Hamrick, Press Secretary for Family Research Council, made
an astute prediction, which has now been fulfilled in spades:
This is why lines must be drawn, standards
discussed, and battles fought. Because when people push the envelope of
morality and get away with it, they don’t sit back to enjoy the sensation. They
reach further – touching the lives of the people around them – touching the
lives of your children, and someday, mine.[viii]
If
nothing else, the redefinition of marriage says to Canadian society and more
specifically to our youth:
“Nuts
to traditional marriage.”
“Nuts
to the conservative argument voiced over all these years.”
“Nuts to Christianity.”
“Nuts
to all traditional religions.”
Copyright © 2008 StandForGod.Org
[i] Karla Mantilla, “Abortion,
power, and the morality wars,” Off Our
Backs, Washington,
February 1999.
[ii] Pamela Paul, The Starter Marriage and the Future of Matrimony
(New York: World Publishing Company, 1987), p. 233.
[iii] Dalma Heyn, Marriage Shock:The Transformation of Women
into Wives (New York: Villard, 1997), p.xii.
[iv] Eric Marcus, Together Forever: Gay and Lesbian Marriage
(New York: Anchor Books, 1998), p.46.
[v] Eric Marcus, The Male Couple’s Guide: Finding a Man,
Making a Home, Building a Life, Third Edition, (New York: HaperPerennial,
1988), p. 46.
[vi] Ibid., pp.43 and 44.
[vii] Maggie Gallagher, The Abolution of Marriage: How We Destroy
Lasting Love (Washington D.C.: Regenery, 1996), p.31.
[viii] Joe
Dallas, A Strong Delusion: Confronting the “Gay Christian” Movement (Eugene
Oregon: Harvest House, 1996), p.37. Quote by Kristi Hamrick, Press Secretary,
Family Research Council.
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