Not looking back

After yesterday’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the Defense of Marriage Act, I was struck by some of the fallout on the side of people in support of DOMA. Here are two examples of tweets from conservative voices.

Bryan J Fischer: @BryanJFischer “The DOMA ruling has now made the normalization of polygamy, pedophilia, incest and bestiality inevitable.”

Mike Huckabee: @GovMikeHuckabee “My thoughts on the SCOTUS ruling that determined that same sex marriage is okay: ‘Jesus wept.'”

Most of you recognize former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee from his run for President of the United States and possibly Fox News. Bryan J Fischer is the Director of Issue Analysis for the American Family Association and is a radio host on the AFR talk network. But from what I can discern, he’s a white-haired religious internet troll. Really, go check out his timeline for your daily dose of crazy. How Fischer dehumanizes and criminalizes homosexuality and equates it to things like pedophilia and bestiality shows he’s a few fries short of a Happy Meal.

My point is, is that in the name of religion, more vile hate is spewed than from most any other group deemed as “legitimate” or “one to be taken seriously” in this country. Even federal lawmakers from my neck of the woods decided to get into the religious/family values discussion on the steps of the Supreme Court minutes after the ruling was handed down from the court. Kansas Republican Congressman Tim Heulskamp explained it like this.

“With this decision, the Courts have allowed the desire of adults to trump the needs of children,” Heulskamp said. “Every child deserves a mommy and a daddy and with this decision, they undercut the needs of our children.”

So what are we saying here, Tim? That children adopted by gay individuals or couples are not in a home they deserve? And how are they “our children?” Is Rep. Heulskamp somehow implying that a gay couple who adopted a child in Minnesota that the child belongs to supporters of DOMA, or even more worrying, Heulskamp himself? What every child deserves is to grow up in a loving and caring environment with one or two or however many attentive and involved parental units, no matter their sexual proclivity.

As long as we’re on the subject, millions of children are involved with “mommy and daddy” in ways that are not in keeping with traditional religious values, whatever those may be. Myself included.

When I was 15 my parents separated, divorced and my mother subsequently had her marriage to my father annulled in the eyes of the Catholic Church. After nearly 20 years of marriage, which somehow renders my sister and myself somewhat illegitimate in the eyes of the church we were raised in.

Kids are also raised by mommy and daddy in environments which are not necessarily in keeping with supposed ideal family structures. Parents divorce at a rate of 50%, more or less. They raise kids in physically, verbally and emotionally abusive households or in families with any number of differing substance abuses. Where is the public outcry on the right for that? Conservatives will strut around and proclaim they are protecting family values including traditional marriage, and thus protecting American values, however they ignore the real problems and issues which millions of Americans are faced with. Let us not forget the fact they are ignoring the core teachings of the man they proclaim to follow and give their lives to in doing so.

The Catholic Church was one of the strongest supporters of DOMA. I have been away from the church and going to mass regularly for a very long time. I always quip that before I was confirmed at the age of 16 I could count how many times I missed mass on one hand, but after I was confirmed I can count how many times I’ve attended on the other. At first, it was because I was old enough to make my own decisions on how I wanted to spend my Sunday mornings, and sitting in church for an hour sounded incredibly boring. However, as I grew older, I became morally and fundamentally opposed to many of the positions the Catholic hierarchy supported. Their stance on issues like DOMA and their cover up of sexual abuse within the church, for starters. The latter is virtually irreconcilable for me personally. To paraphrase Dan Savage, if Denny’s employees serially raped young children, no one would go anymore and the franchise would have shuttered at the discovery of the situation. It’s beyond reproach.

My wife also comes from a Catholic background and I won’t speak for how she will eventually want to raise our son and our next child in regard to religion. That part of our family still remains to be decided. However, at the moment I can’t imagine attempting to raise my son in a religion that is so opposed to my own moral beliefs in so many ways. Even more so if our next child is a girl. I especially cannot fathom raising my girl in a place where women are not allowed to lead in an equal fashion as the men.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=mxhopWCZjec