DISESTABLISH MARRIAGE? Jim Downard

[Jim Downard teaches American history and studies Robert Nozick.]

C.S. Lewis (in Mere Christianity, I think) advocated two kinds of marriage: one solemnized by the state that could be ended at any time for any reason and acknowledged as such and a church marriage that could not be broken under any circumstances or conditions. He was addressing the question of divorce which, before his death in 1963, was nowhere near the problem it has since become with the advent of dissolution laws.

The demand that churches accept same-sex unions arises from the desire to normalize what has hitherto been regarded as abnormal: same-sex relations. It is not simply a civil rights issue, a matter of granting the same special financial and legal privileges to homosexuals that states have always accorded to heterosexuals.

Even if "society" were to endorse Lewis's suggestion from long ago, militant homosexuals and leftists who desire to break down any traditional canons of morality would still be knocking at the door of the church, hoping to revolutionize it. No revolutionary can let any part of a given society remain unrevolutionized. The inner logic of revolution cannot abide it.

Traditionalists may have lost this struggle in the cultural and legal spheres of American life. A counter-revolution would demand a counter-cultural revolution which "tolerance" and "diversity" will never permit. Everyone except for a handful of traditionalists are afraid of being labeled "bigots," which is another legacy of the 60's.
posted by Eve at 4:21 AM | link

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home