For more than four millennia, marriage has been understood as a sacred union of one man and one woman – virtually everywhere in the world, in almost all societies. The family that resulted was viewed as the fundamental unit of society, whose main purpose was to create an environment in which children could be conceived, nurtured and raised to succeed their elders as adult members of society. The arrangement was rarely, if ever, questioned. Marriage, as it was traditionally understood, constituted the healthiest, safest and most natural way for the human race to procreate, survive and prosper.
This is not to say that the phenomenon of homosexuality has not existed since the dawn of humanity. While celebrated in some ancient cultures, it was more commonly viewed as an aberration. The homosexual act was labeled an abomination in biblical times; those who perpetrated such acts were viewed with pity, sometimes scorn. The idea that a homosexual couple could provide a nurturing home for children did not arise.
In more recent times, homosexuality has been considered more an abnormality than a sin, unnatural rather than criminal, sometimes as an illness. But in the more enlightened era in which we find ourselves now, it is treated as an “alternate lifestyle,” well within the bounds of normality. Maltreatment of homosexuals is considered to be as loathsome as mistreatment of women, minorities, disabled persons, religious people or senior citizens. Moreover, having arrived at this progressive viewpoint, it follows that there is absolutely no reason not to allow – even to encourage – homosexual marriage and the parenting of children by same sex couples. The common wisdom of four thousand years has been deemed WRONG.
But gay marriage flies in the face of human nature. It is not natural. Even if that were so, say proponents, there is no reason to prohibit it. Well, yes there is. One cannot render something natural if it is inherently not. One cannot declare something possible when it is manifestly not. If a man has the misfortune to be born blind, he is not going to play shortstop for the NY Yankees. If a woman has a cleft palette, she is not going to sing Puccini at the Met. If a person is nervous and easily excitable, that person will not be invited to join the bomb disposal squad.
Well, if a man lies with another male, rather than a female, he is not going to produce a baby. The latter combination, when it occurs under the rubric of normal marriage, is, according to the accepted wisdom of all mankind stretching back through the ages, the natural and right way to structure a family for the preservation of the species. Artificially declaring that unnatural alliances – such as gay unions, polygamy or man-child love groupings – constitute equally valid forms of marriage is the height of human arrogance and folly. It represents one more nail in the coffin of Western Civilization – indeed of civilization itself.
The key feature of American civilization – or the American experiment, as it is commonly known – is the establishment and preservation of individual liberty. Within the bounds of the rule of law and without doing any harm to fellow citizens, Americans are free to pursue their own destiny – economically, culturally and politically. That freedom guarantees the individual the right to pursue his sexuality with members of the same sex if he so chooses.
Similarly, an individual is free to be a pacifist who will not take up arms under any circumstances. But that does not change the accumulated wisdom of centuries, which teaches that evil lurks in the world, evil forces sometimes threaten peace-loving peoples and that if the latter do not defend themselves, they run the risk of death and destruction.
An individual is free to be an atheist. But that does not change the accumulated wisdom of centuries, which teaches that without the moral laws that arise from religious belief, a free people cannot govern itself and its society will eventually degenerate into tyranny or anarchy.
A young person is free to declare his independence from his family. But that does not change the accumulated wisdom of centuries, which teaches that a child’s ability to make reasoned and sensible decisions is not equal to that of his parents, and that the best environment for growth from childhood to adulthood is in the bosom of a loving family.