November 23, 2003

"We shouldn't just allow gay marriage. We should insist on gay marriage."

To my mind, this observation by David Brooks is the most lucid thing said to date on the subject of gay marriage in particular and marriage in general: The Power of Marriage

"Some conservatives may have latched onto biological determinism (men are savages who need women to tame them) as a convenient way to oppose gay marriage. But in fact we are not animals whose lives are bounded by our flesh and by our gender. We're moral creatures with souls, endowed with the ability to make covenants, such as the one Ruth made with Naomi: "Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried."

"The conservative course is not to banish gay people from making such commitments. It is to expect that they make such commitments. We shouldn't just allow gay marriage. We should insist on gay marriage. We should regard it as scandalous that two people could claim to love each other and not want to sanctify their love with marriage and fidelity.

"When liberals argue for gay marriage, they make it sound like a really good employee benefits plan. Or they frame it as a civil rights issue, like extending the right to vote.

"Marriage is not voting. It's going to be up to conservatives to make the important, moral case for marriage, including gay marriage. Not making it means drifting further into the culture of contingency, which, when it comes to intimate and sacred relations, is an abomination."

Posted by Vanderleun at November 23, 2003 07:23 PM | TrackBack
Comments

"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is". Yogi Berra

"When the chips are down, the bull is empty."

Posted by: E2 at November 24, 2003 11:24 AM

"We shouldn't just allow gay marriage. We should insist on gay marriage. We should regard it as scandalous that two people could claim to love each other and not want to sanctify their love with marriage and fidelity."

Yeah, well we know how well -that- works for heterosexual marriage, eh? Conservatives have been making the moral case for that for centuries yet here we are, where marriage in general are often considered nothing more than convienence arrangements for a spousal health benefits, to be cast off when we're no longer "in love" (read: he/she squeezes the toothpaste tube from the middle; I'm outta here).

Let's get marriage as it has been for thousands of years right first. -Then- if y'all still want to debate homosexual marriage, you can try with the moral argument.

Posted by: Doug Payton at November 26, 2003 05:40 AM
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