Vast human experience confirms that marriage is the original and most important institution for sustaining the health, education, and welfare of all persons in a society. Where marriage is honored, and where there is a flourishing marriage culture, everyone benefits - the spouses themselves, their children, the communities and societies in which they live. Where the marriage culture begins to erode, social pathologies of every sort quickly manifest themselves. Unfortunately, we have witnessed over the course of the past several decades a serious erosion of the marriage culture in our own country. Perhaps the most telling - and alarming - indicator is the out-of-wedlock birth rate. Less than fifty years ago, it was under 5 percent. Today it is over 40 percent. Our society - and particularly its poorest and most vulnerable sectors, where the out-of-wedlock birth rate is much higher even than the national average - is paying a huge price in delinquency, drug abuse, crime, incarceration, hopelessness, and despair. Other indicators are widespread non-marital sexual cohabitation and a devastatingly high rate of divorce.
--Anonymous poster on Madpriest's blog plagiarizing the "Manhattan Declaration."
Before we get into the legalities of this whole thing [same-sex marriage] and what the [U.S.] Supreme Court did, I'd like to show you what Jesus said. I think his word, in my opinion, the final word on it. In Matthew, he [Jesus] said this ... 'Haven't you read,' he [Jesus] replied, 'that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,'"-- I want to emphasize that male and female. And he [Jesus] says, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh' [Matthew 19:1-5, New International Version].
"Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is the basis of marriage. It is male-female, not male and male, not female and female. It is male and female. There is no way that two women can reproduce. There's no way that two men can reproduce. The whole concept of marriage is to bring forth a godly seed, to bring forth children who will grow up to serve the Lord.
"That's what marriage is about and it is about nothing else. It has nothing to do with these hedonists, self-absorbed hedonists, if you will, that want to impose their particular sexuality on the rest of America. They don't need marriage because marriage was the protection of men and women, male and female, for the bringing forth of children. That's what it's about, nothing else, bottom line. And if America goes the other way we will be flying directly in the face of the clear word of the Bible.
--Pat Robertson on The 700 Club, November 30, 2004
Here's a poster from some folks down at the old NSDAP who really cared about marriage and healthy families.
Here's Magnus Hirschfeld with all his gay friends who supposedly didn't care about families.
Here is Magnus Hirschfeld's office after those concerned citizens from the NSDAP paid a visit.
Here is Erwin Schimitzek, a store clerk from Dessau arrested for homosexuality, photographed in Auschwitz where he died in 1943 at age 24.
And now for pictures of boys kissing! Hooray!
There are times when it's fun to belabor the point.
And here's some music to kiss by. I'm sure Hirschfeld and his gay friends did lots of kissing to this:
Hat tip to Madpriest for discovering this.
What's all this I hear about gay men opposed to families?
What's obscene is not boys canoodling and having sex; it's people who rationalize their fear and bigotry.
ADDENDUM:
More obscenity:
The public image of gays and lesbians is overwhelmingly white and affluent (including on this blog); and yet, the vast majority of anti-gay hate crime victims are black and Latino lgbt's.
For example from last week:
Jason Mattison was gagged with a pillowcase and stabbed to death with a box cutter in his own home after being raped. He was 15 years old at the time of his death, and known to be gay.
Steven Lopez Mercado in Puerto Rico was found last week murdered, dismembered, decapitated, and partially burned. Steven was transgender. The alleged killer said he believed he was picking up a woman in a part of San Juan known for a high population of transgendered people.
All the piles of gay porn in the world are small potatoes compared to those obscenities. The only competitor in obscenity would be all the people whose rationalizations enable this violence, and then scramble to distance themselves from the blood oozing in their direction when it happens.
The anonymous poster quoted first above is plagiarizing The Manhattan Declaration (pdf file) that nearly everyone seems to be posting about the past few days.
ReplyDeleteYes, if only loving relationships were encouraged and supported and focused on, the church "at large" could get on with preaching as Jesus did! It's as if some (calling themselves "church guardians") had posted a gigantic DETOUR sign - without providing any other road to actually travel on. Meanwhile people pile up at the "detour" - the lines of people with nowhere to go growing ever longer. Except for those who simply hop over the pretend detour. And carry on down the road!
ReplyDeleteIt would be funny, were it not so sad.
If "Vast human experience confirms that marriage is the original and most important institution for sustaining the health, education, and welfare of all persons in a society." Then the logical conclusion is that marriage should be legal for all who wish it. Period.
ReplyDeleteThat's what you call sockin' it to 'em, baby.
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm going to have to read the Manhattan Declaration.
"I guess I'm going to have to read the Manhattan Declaration."
ReplyDeleteWhy bother? There's nothing in it that you and I haven't heard a million times over already.
Forget about reading that insane and vicious document. Let's have more kissing instead! Belabor away, Doug.
ReplyDeleteWell said Doug.
ReplyDeleteIf having children were the only reason to get married, I guess that would let me out. I lost that ability to cancer at the age of 34.
ReplyDeleteEven if that were not so, I would have now lost it to age. I'll just bet none of the signers of the Manhattan Declaration would have any objections to my marriage.
The recognition, blessing and formalizing of any loving relationship stabilizes the society in which it takes place. It is fear and hate that is the destabilizing influence.
The signers of the Manhattan Declaration are the usual suspects, including +Abudja. Nuff said.
ReplyDeleteCan we now belabor w/ grrls kissin'? ;-)
ReplyDelete