Reading Andrew Sullivan’s response to James Dobson’s nonsense about why the Federal Marriage Amendment is still necessary, maybe more now than ever, I had a thought. If the Defense of Marriage Act is so wonderful and “federalist”, would the logic that a state doesn’t have to recognize another state’s civil marriage if it offends its citizenry’s sensibilities hold regarding adoption by same-sex couples? Would an adopted child’s parents have no parental rights if they move from California to Florida, for example? Would the state take the child, in the child’s best interest, of course? Is there anything different between respecting marriage and adoption as conferred by civil law?
I could be way off in my logic (I don’t think so), or marriage amendment supporters could argue that my scenario proves why the FMA is necessary (they’d still be wrong), but it seems that support for ignored marriages equates to support for ignored adoptions. That’s not a trend I think we want in this country. The naked bigotry included in Virginia’s proposed Constitutional amendment isn’t what we should want, either, but I expect that to pass in November. The battle for reason is uphill. That doesn’t mean I have to like it or respect the thinking of those who refuse to accept individual rights.
P.S. I find it amusing that Dobson laments the media’s conspiracy to thwart “traditional” marriage by writing about it at CNN. Yep, those crazy liberals, always trying to shun Christians.
It would seem that the greatest respect anyone could pay to the institution of marriage is to seek to get married to someone else.
It is difficult to begin to understand how the desire of gay couples to marry threatens to damage the concept of marriage between straight people.
My wife and I have been married for many years and feel no threat from someone else’s marriage or desire to wed.
The biggest threats to marriage appear to be from people who want to end a marriage or who do not want to ever get married. By the way, people certainly have every right to avoid or to end a marriage; they just do not strengthen marriage by doing so.