Thursday, February 27, 2014

SLOUCHING TOWARD PHOENIX

Regarding the bill vetoed yesterday by Gov. Brewer of Arizona: The object of the bill was to protect religious people who object to same-sex weddings from being prosecuted by their refusal to provide goods or services for such weddings (florists, bakers and photographers have been to object of lawsuits in other states). 

Perhaps the bill was poorly crafted or ham-handed, but realize:

1. The reporting on the bill was blatantly false. "Anti-gay bill" was the way it was described. OK, then, I will call your objection, "Anti-faith." Sound fair? Media, be accurate. I know it's not what you were taught in your leftist school of journalism, but hey, let's try to be lifelong learners, OK?
2. The objective of the other side isn't to narrowly assure access to goods and services (flowers, cakes, and photography). It's to humiliate, impoverish and destroy all opposition to same-sex relationships. They know that evangelical Christians, pious Catholics and observant Jews are the main force that stands in the way. That bakery in Colorado was targeted specifically because the owner, Jack Phillips, is an outspoken evangelical Christian. The left sees people like Jack as the enemy. The immediate goal is to see to it that people like Jack are ostracized and humiliated. The intermediate goal is to see people like Jack prosecuted and impoverished. The long-term goal is to see people like Jack destroyed and eliminated. No, not by genocide, but by wearing them down--winning the way water wins the battle against the rock.

This all means two things:

1. Liberalism is dead; leftism reigns. Liberalism used to mean, "Do you own thing." To be "liberal" is to be free. The left has no use for freedom. They want conformity. You are not free to do, or think, what you want to do or think if the academic-social-political left does not agree.

2. Leftism tolerates no other gods. That includes any Biblical God. People of faith are an annoyance to the left; expect a gradual move to make what annoys them, bit by bit, illegal. No, they won't burn churches. First, sue people like Jack Phillips. Then sue churches for not doing same-sex weddings. Expect to lose those cases. And lose. And lose. But one day a friendly judge will be found, and then, churches all across America, bit by bit, will be sued. Pastors will go to jail for hate speech. 

Crazy, you say? Hey it was crazy talk just 15 years ago to talk about same-sex marriage. The center cannot hold...and we have loosed a rough beast upon the world.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity...

The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

(William Butler Yeats, 1919)

1 comment:

William Spearshake said...

Refusing services to a gay couple is not freedom of religion, it is bigotry, pure and simple. There was a time when it was acceptable practice to deny services to someone of a different race. And religion was often used as an argument to defend this. Thankfully, this is no longer the case.

Owning a company that provides services must provide those services without prejudice. It's the law. People can still be denied services for any number of reasons (under age, improperly attired, disruptive behavior, etc.). But you can't deny them service because you disagree with their legally protected way of life. This is not an infringement on religious freedoms. You are still well within your rights to be opposed to same sex marriage, and to voice your opinions about it.

Just remember, criticism of a religiously held view is not persecution, it is disagreement. If you can't rationally and logically defend your stance, that is your problem, not everybody else's.