Some truths are so self-evident their defense is hard to put into words. Authentic marriage is one of these. But truth lost out to social engineering last week when the New York legislature redefined the un-redefinable. New York fell back on tired "rights" arguments. Today we have a right to privacy, civil rights, reproductive rights, children's rights, workers' rights, gay rights, animal rights. California's Proposition 71 made conducting stem cell research a state constitutional right. The only rights that have fallen out of favor lately seem to be the right to life and the right to exercise religious freedom.
Proponents of same-sex marriage try to equate the right to marry someone of the same sex to the discrimination faced by African-Americans. By doing so, they diminish the African-American struggle. As the New York Bishops' Conference said, redefining marriage has nothing to do with civil rights. "In the first case, a race of people was shamefully made to endure hundreds of years of slavery and systemic persecution and discrimination. Today’s debate focuses on a small group of persons, whose human rights must always be respected and defended by us all, but who claim a civil right to redefine marriage for all of society based on a private and personal preference."
Our culture seems to be moving towards a collective case of amnesia when it comes to remembering the purpose of marriage. Marriage between a man and a woman benefits the common good. It produces children and provides an environment where they can flourish. It is not a private institution. Rather it forms the bedrock on which society is built. It was not created as "merely a committed relationship for the private interest of adults," as Federal District Judge Vaughn Walker wrote in his opinion overruling the California voters who decided that marriage is a union between one man and one woman. Oakland Bishop Salvatore Cordileone's press release on behalf of the U.S.C.C.B. sums it up. "Making marriage law indifferent to the absence of either sex creates an institutional and cultural crisis with generational consequences yet to be seen."
Yes, actions have consequences. If we ignore the truth and toy with matters of such enormity, we do so at our own risk.
