Ironwolf

The two marquee lawyers who fought each other all the way to the Supreme Court to decide whether Al Gore or George W. Bush would become President are at it again. Ted Olson is a conservative, and David Boies is a liberal. But this time they’re fighting as allies to defend marriage equality.

This is the finest discussion I’ve heard about the marriage equality issue. Moyers takes the devil’s advocate position throughout, posing objection after objection that’s been advanced by the religious right in America. Watch as these two brilliant lawyers deliver absolutely devastating rebuttals. It shows that ultimately, the only “argument” against same-sex marriage is a religious one advanced by those who would, if they could, destroy our democracy and turn it into a theocracy. With them in charge, of course.

Please, listen to this interview and pass it on to your friends. The audio is below, or you can watch the entire show’s video on the PBS web site.

The core of her argument, from the end of the clip:

Marriage is the only institution we have that’s about bringing together the two great halves of humanity: male and female, so that children can know and be known by, and love and be loved by their own mother and father. And if the government moves to same-sex marriage— if the law teaches the next generation: “there isn’t anything unique about unions of husbands and wives” a lot of things are going to change for a lot of children. Maybe not for you and me, we’re kind of old [and for us] maybe everything will go on just the same, but marriage will change, and it will change for everyone in the state.

This fear-mongering “argument” sums up just about every position I’ve heard against same-sex marriage. Yet, it is full of inconsistent and vague assertions, the most glaring being that the sole purpose of marriage is for children. Yet, many people get married with no intention of ever having children. If marriage is all about children, then why don’t we only make marriage available to couples of child-bearing age who sign affidavits that they intend to have children together? The answer is that we don’t do this because marriage can be about many things that may (or may not) include love, companionship, division of responsibilities, legal benefits, and yes, even children. To insist that the law allow older or infertile couples to get married, or that the law allow couples with children to get divorced, and to simultaneously insist the law prohibit same-sex couples from marriage with only an incoherent, mealy-mouthed, “a lot of things are going to change” for your point is the height of bigotry and Orwellian double-think.

And if you agree with her, and want to claim that she just ran out of time, please state your most compelling rational argument against legalizing same-sex marriage in the comments. No, I don’t accept purely faith-based arguments as rational. You’re playing with the big boys here, so tell me: what are the negative consequences for society if this became legal everywhere?

The letter below landed in my inbox yesterday, and I thought it was worth passing on. I looked up the quotes and they’re real.

Freaky!

*** If you are worried about the fate of our nation, please forward this email to everyone you love! ***

Dear Concerned American Citizen,

Our nation is in dire trouble.

The following quotes, as incredible as it may seem, came out of the mouths of some of the most powerful politicians in America.

These words should concern any Christian person, especially if you intend to vote in the November 2008 Presidential election.

It is CLEAR that this nation is heading down a very slippery slope and into the pits of darkness if we, as concerned Christian voters, can stand by and let this level of blasphemy and heretical thought make its way into our government — let alone the White House itself!

Read for yourself:

HERETIC #1
“The Government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”

*** This so-called “leader” denies our Christian heritage. Get this: He actually goes to church, but according to a printed quote from his own minister, he’s just faking it!

HERETIC #2
“I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. My pastor used to pray for my conversion, but he never had the satisfaction of believing that his prayers were heard.”

*** This American “leader” claims that Christianity either cannot be understood or is simply not intelligent! THANK GOD he cannot be elected President this year, but he is still thought of as a “hero”!!

HERETIC #3
“As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?…God is an essence that we know nothing of. Until this awful blasphemy is erased, there never will be any liberal science in the world.”

*** “Liberal science”?? This PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE wants liberal science (read: Evolution?) elevated over God, who we “know nothing of.” Can you believe this??

HERETIC #4
“Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. The whole history of the Gospel is so defective and doubtful that it seems vain to attempt any enquiry into it…In the New Testament there is internal evidence that parts of it have proceeded from an extraordinary man; and that other parts are of the fabric of very inferior minds. It is as easy to separate those parts, as to pick out diamonds from dunghills.”

*** DUNGHILLS?? This Presidential candidate thinks the Bible is okay in places, and crap in others! That our Bible is “defective” and that its followers have burned and tortured women and children! Do you want THIS MAN running our nation??

HERETIC #5
“For centuries the legal establishment of Christianity had been on trial. What are its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and arrogance in the church, ignorance and an almost slave-like mindset among the masses, and in both camps; superstition, bigotry and persecution.”

*** I bet you can tell this guy was a lawyer before he decided to run for the Senate! He claims that Christianity has been “on trial” for centuries, and according to HIM, it’s been found guilty of making people ignorant and causing violence and bigotry! Can you believe this man wants to be President too?

HERETIC #6
“My earlier views of the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures have become clearer and stronger with advancing years and I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them.”

*** Unsound? Of “human origin”? This is utter blasphemy! Who does this man think he is???

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHO THESE MEN ARE??

You should! You want to avoid voting for them at all costs!

Scroll down to find out….

 

Heretic 1: George Washington (our first President)
Heretic 2: Benjamin Franklin (inventor, diplomat)
Heretic 3: John Adams (our second President)
Heretic 4: Thomas Jefferson (our third President)
Heretic 5: James Madison (our fourth President)
Heretic 6: Abraham Lincoln (our sixteenth President)

Shocked?

The quotes are real. The only alterations made were to the vernacular. Feel free to Google any of them and verify them for yourself.

Here’s the lesson:

1. Without these men, you would not enjoy the freedoms you have today.

2. Yet, if you are a Christian, YOU WOULD HAVE NEVER VOTED FOR ANY OF THEM.

Let that sink in as you go to the polls this November.

The majority of our Founding Fathers were not Christians. At best, they were Deists, and all these men strongly opposed many if not all aspects of Christianity as we understand it. This is by no means a partial list.

Now, ask yourself this:

“What if Senator Clinton said she found the Bible unintelligible?”

“What if Senator Obama claimed the Gospels were defective and flawed?”

“What if Senator McCain claimed the fruits of the faith were violence and bigotry?”

What would our so-called “liberal” media make of such statements? Front-page headlines! Fodder for mudslinging campaign slogans! Endless debate over whether he or she was a “viable candidate” for the office of the Presidency!

And you? Would you even bother to vote?

Yet only the most naive person would claim any of our present-day candidates could rival our early leaders. From Washington’s fearless leadership to Jefferson’s astonishing intellect, these six “heretics” are in a class all their own. They fathered our Constitution, introduced our Bill of Rights, and established freedom unparalleled in the known world. They literally created democracy, invented the lightening rod, and abolished slavery.

Now, look at the other side:

For eight long years, we have endured a President who would have never appointed one of these “heretics” to his cabinet. A President that has marched us into war against the council of the majority of the leaders in this world and the vast majority of American consensus. A President who has spent over 2 TRILLION dollars in these endeavors, and yet we still have a missing terrorist leader and a faction of Islam that is stronger, not weaker. A President who has, in effect, ordained the death of over 83,000 Iraqi men, women and children.

And yet: A President who openly professes his faith in the Prince of PEACE?

Peace??

What would our Founding Fathers think of such a man, or of the nation who now demands its leaders to be politically correct and of Christian faith?

Ask yourself this: Would you elect a semi-Deist (Washington), a militant Deist (Franklin), a Unitarian (Adams), a man who wrote his own version of the Bible to clarify his Deistic beliefs (Jefferson), an Episcopal back-slider who later converted to Deism (Monroe), or a Deist who later professed his affinity for Free Thought and Agnosticism (Lincoln)?

Think about it.

Then vote.