Conservative Christian Alliance Surprised by Lack of Response from the Pews on Gay Marriage


Maybe people are smarter than to let THIS be a defining campaign issue

Read an interesting NY Times article today on how Christian "leaders" are surprised that the rank and file members of their congregation aren't responding more vociferously to their anti-gay-marriage efforts.

I have a little clue for them:

Maybe it just isn't that scary and isn't that important. Yeah, if you ask a bunch of them they'll say, "I think marriage is between a man and woman." but the fact is they can't figure out why they want their government to worry about that issue, rather than cleaning up the situation in Iraq, bolstering the economy, and generally improving education, the environment and access to affordable health care.

And they can't quite figure out how it really affects them, and certainly not in a negative way, for gay couples to marry. So they might not agree with it, but they also might not agree with a host of other things people do in this country.

These so-called Christian leaders would better spend their time trying to get the so-called Christian leader of our country to care more about the less fortunate, more vulnerable members of our society. I think Jesus himself cared a lot more for the downtrodden than the romantically inclined of any stripe.

And if you're wondering why I write bout gay marriage in this blog, rather than the SCC DP blog, it's in keeping with trying to prevent the Republicans from framing the entire election as they see fit, making a political mountain out of this relative molehill.

I care about the issue a lot from a personal, human point of view. The only reason Republicans want people to care from a political point of view is to continue their policy of campaigning on fear: encouraging people to fear some unknown and unrealistic "slippery slope" result from allowing gay marriage.

I won't even give it the political heft they're hoping for.

Posted: Sun - May 16, 2004 at 12:18 PM       EmailFeedback

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