 |
|
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon With its colorful cache of purples and oranges and reds, COLLARD GREEN SLAW is a marvelous mood booster --- not to mention just downright delish
April 18, 2014
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Clarifying one of the greatest philosophical conundrums in theology
John Ericson: Trying hard to be 'positive' but never succeeding? Blame Your Brain
The Kosher Gourmet by Julie Rothman Almondy, flourless torta del re (Italian king's cake), has royal roots, is simple to make, . . . but devour it because it's simply delicious
April 14, 2014
Rabbi Dr Naftali Brawer: Passover frees us from the tyranny of time
Eric Schulzke: First degree: How America really recovered from a murder epidemic
Georgia Lee: When love is not enough: Teaching your kids about the realities of adult relationships
Gordon Pape: How you can tell if your financial adviser is setting you up for potential ruin
Dana Dovey: Up to 500,000 people die each year from hepatitis C-related liver disease. New Treatment Has Over 90% Success Rate
Justin Caba: Eating Watermelon Can Help Control High Blood Pressure
April 11, 2014
Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Silence is much more than golden
Susan Swann: How to value a child for who he is, not just what he does
Susan Scutti: A Simple Blood Test Might Soon Diagnose Cancer
Chris Weller: Have A Slow Metabolism? Let Science Speed It Up For You
April 9, 2014
Jonathan Tobin: Why Did Kerry Lie About Israeli Blame?
Samuel G. Freedman: A resolution 70 years later for a father's unsettling legacy of ashes from Dachau
Jessica Ivins: A resolution 70 years later for a father's unsettling legacy of ashes from Dachau
Matthew Mientka: How Beans, Peas, And Chickpeas Cleanse Bad Cholesterol and Lowers Risk of Heart Disease
April 8, 2014
Dana Dovey: Coffee Drinkers Rejoice! Your Cup Of Joe Can Prevent Death From Liver Disease
Chris Weller: Electric 'Thinking Cap' Puts Your Brain Power Into High Gear
April 4, 2014
Amy Peterson: A life of love: How to build lasting relationships with your children
John Ericson: Older Women: Save Your Heart, Prevent Stroke Don't Drink Diet
John Ericson: Why 50 million Americans will still have spring allergies after taking meds
Sarah Boesveld: Teacher keeps promise to mail thousands of former students letters written by their past selves
April 2, 2014
Dan Barry: Should South Carolina Jews be forced to maintain this chimney built by Germans serving the Nazis?
Frank Clayton: Get happy: 20 scientifically proven happiness activities
Susan Scutti: It's Genetic! Obesity and the 'Carb Breakdown' Gene
|
| |
Jewish World Review
June 8, 2006
/ 12 Sivan, 5766
Demagogues and the marriage debate
By
Jeff Jacoby
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
In a statement opposing the Marriage Protection Amendment debated in Congress this week, Senator Edward Kennedy
said that "gay and lesbian couples deserve the same rights as married couples under state law" and dismissed the amendment
as "a wholly inappropriate effort to override state courts and to intrude into individuals' private lives."
How should those who disagree with Kennedy's position react to it? By explaining on the merits why they believe he's
wrong? Or by calling him names — a "gay-loving fanatic," say, or an "immoral pervert"?
It's a no-brainer. Only a demagogue believes that the controversy over same-sex marriage can be improved by hurling
insults at those who radically want to change the meaning of matrimony. Even if you think they are wrong, there is no reason to
doubt that most Americans who favor legalizing gay and lesbian marriages consider it an issue of fairness and tolerance. Their
arguments should be challenged with facts and logic, not vitriol. Anyone who slandered Kennedy with slurs like those above
would be considered contemptible, and rightly so.
It is just as contemptible when the slurs and slander are hurled in the other direction.
"A vote for this amendment," Kennedy has said repeatedly, "is a vote for bigotry, pure and simple." Like so many on his side
of the debate, he insists that supporters of the marriage amendment are fanatics and haters — knuckle-draggers from "the rabid
reactionary right" who want to "stain the Constitution with their language of bigotry," as he put it the last time the Senate took
up the issue. If you are strongly committed to the traditional understanding of marriage as the union of husband and wife, in
other words, you aren't just wrong — you're evil. You aren't fit to debate with, only to demonize. Kennedy and his allies don't
want to consider your point of view, and they don't want anyone else considering it either. And they know that there is no
better way to make a viewpoint so toxic that decent Americans shun it than to portray it as the equivalent of racism and
prejudice.
But if it's "bigotry, pure and simple" not to want same-sex marriage to be forced on American society by a handful of
crusading courts, then among the bigots must be the large congressional majority — 85 senators, 342 representatives — who
passed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, confirming that marriage in the United States is between members of the
opposite sex only and allowing states to deny recognition of same-sex marriages performed in other states. Former President
Bill Clinton must be a bigot too: He signed the bill into law.
The bigots must also include the dozens of American religious leaders who signed the Religious Coalition for Marriage
statement endorsing the marriage amendment. The list of signatories is remarkably ecumenical — Roman Catholic cardinals,
Greek and Russian Orthodox primates, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, rabbis, an apostle of
the Mormon church, the president of the Coalition of African-American Pastors, the editor of Christianity Today, and many
others. Bigots all, apparently.
Vastly more numerous are voters in the 19 states where constitutional amendments securing the definition of marriage have
been put on the ballot. "In every case," as President Bush observed this week, "the amendments were approved by decisive
majorities, with an average of 71 percent." All told, 45 of the 50 states either have adopted constitutional amendments or
enacted laws meant to keep the timeless meaning of marriage from being undone. If Kennedy is right, all those states, all those
lawmakers, all those voters should be despised as bigots.
But Kennedy isn't right.
It is not bigotry to insist that there is a good reason why marriage has existed in every known human society, and why it has
always involved the uniting of men and women. It is not bigotry to acknowledge what reams of scholarship confirm: Family
structure matters, and children are more likely to suffer problems when they are not raised by their married mothers and
fathers. It is not bigotry to resist the dishonest comparison of same-sex marriage to interracial marriage — skin color has
nothing to do with wedlock, while sex is fundamental to it. And it is not bigotry to fear that a social change as radical as
same-sex marriage could lead to grave and unintended consequences, from the persecution of religious institutions to a growing
clamor for legalizing polygamy.
Pro, con, or undecided, Americans should be able to discuss something as serious as redefining marriage without resorting
to slander and ad hominem attacks. There are sincere, compassionate, and thoughtful people on both sides of this issue. How
can you tell who they are? They aren't the ones calling people bigots.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Jeff Jacoby is a Boston Globe columnist. Comment by clicking here.
Jeff Jacoby Archives
© 2006, Boston Globe
|
|
Columnists
Toons
Lifestyles
|
