DELIBERATE STUPIDITY

I used to wonder why entertainers, newspeople and politicians spoke to the American people as if they were all 12 years old.  Now I think I am understanding why.  A friend of mine from India asked me yesterday if I knew where one can find the best Indian food in the the world.  I figured - - Calcutta, New Delhi, Mumbai .........  "No", he said, "England".

You see, just because the obvious conclusions come easily, does not mean that they are right.  Surely each of us is smart enough to see past the dumb, reflexive responses of a simpleton. BUT NO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I look at the big furor raging right now over the comments of Dan Cathy, the president of the Chick-Fil-A fast food chain.  This guy is a southern Christian who disapproves of homosexuality.  His beliefs are based on his interpretations of Bible scriptures.   This is all fine and dandy.  He can believe what he wants.  He goes on to say that God will punish America for embracing gay marriage.  This is where the controversy starts to get more complex.  What is gay marriage?  Is it when a gay couple goes to the local parish church, and the pastor or vicar or priest solemnizes the ordinance of holy matrimony for the couple?

Come on folks !!!  Are we all so stupid that we do not know the difference between an ecclesiastical rite and a government licensing contract?  If I had Cathy's views on homosexuality, I would definitely not officiate in a ceremony marrying two same-gender people.  He shouldn't either.  This whole argument has become so fogged up that it is no wonder that ordinarily, intelligent people cannot see through it.

Let me reiterate - this 14th Amendment, maritime, de facto government to which we are all subject has no business dictating religious compliance to anyone.  It cannot offer a state marriage contract to two heterosexuals while not offering it to two homosexuals.  Plain and simple !!!  Various states are beginning to grasp this, and have allowed gay LEGAL marriages.  Soon all states will.  There is no argument (other than the petulant religious one) that can challenge this change.  The government is not, and should not be, in the business of administering the sacrament of Holy Matrimony, despite decades of appearances to the contrary.  I guess the ignorance comes from multiple generations of people who regularly conflated their faith-based nuptials with the signing of a state contract.  These are TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT BEASTS !!!  Do you understand the distinction?

People are lining up by the thousands to defend Cathy by buying more of his chicken sandwiches, while others are excoriating him for supposedly hating gay people.  Both sides are confused.  If states grant marriage licenses to gays, this is simply in harmony with the tenets of the 14th Amendment (the legal system which replaced the Constitution).  This shift in no way suggests that the states have repudiated the Bible (they did that in the 1860s).  The people who hate Cathy for his pontifications are wrong to assail him.  If our people went and attacked the businesses of all the folks in Arizona and Utah who despise polygamists, there would be few places left to shop at.

I am ranting about this because there is an eerie similarity between this stupid confusion and the confusion over the decriminalization of plural families.  Some observers (Sanctorum) have lamented that the acceptance of legal gay marriages will be the start of a "slippery slope" down which society will slide into an abyss of polygamous and animal marriages (??).

Just like the animals, we polygamists are not fighting for a marriage license from the state.  We just want to be left alone and not be classed as criminals.  The gays won this battle in 2003.  Just like with the gays, the eradication of all polygamists is not feasible.  The wall is cracking.

Are you still confused?