Several adult children of same sex households are starting to speak up about the wounds children have when deliberately deprived of one of their parents, and why they oppose same sex marriage. One such person is Katy Faust. She’s an engaging, compassionate, brave, and loving voice for the rights of children to know their origins. Listen to her speak in the clip below:
Katy’s open letter to Justice Anthony Kennedy which was published at The Public Discourse last month got nearly 300,000 shares on social media so far. You can follow Katy’s amazing blog, which goes by the tongue-in-cheek name www.askthebigot.com In this clip Katy talks about how important it is — especially as Christians — to straddle a fence. We should not cocoon ourselves, but must reach out in love to the other side while holding fast to the Truth. This may be very difficult, but it is our calling. After listening to Katy, I feel the need to strike a more conciliary tone in my writing. I want to always hold fast to the truth, but I do need to delve more into understanding and conveying the pain people feel. And the loneliness. Our human condition so often motivates us to stray and get lost and end up feeling that only hate is coming from “the other side.”
Nevertheless, the mechanics of the same sex marriage campaign has been essentially political in nature. It will reach a political apex in April’s Supreme Court hearings, which will determine if it is the law of the land. In the past couple of years a few blue state legislatures legalized same sex marriage after hearing testimonies about how hurt people felt by the definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Still, it was a close call. In New York in 2011 Gov. Cuomo had to resort to late night back room deals and extend the session after official adjournment. There was obviously a lot of arm twisting until he managed to get the three votes he wanted. A very similar thing happened in Maryland with Gov. O’Malley in 2012. He also worked overtime to get the three votes he wanted. Then, after just a few legislatures passed the measures by the thinnest of margins, activist judges sprang into action to strike down laws in every state whose legislatures hadn’t passed same sex marriage. And that’s where we are today.
Emotions have basically been the fuel of what looks to be window-of-opportunity politics. Real societal change naturally occurs over time, as people absorb and think through the consequences of policies. But when it moves at lightning speed like this, from the top down — along with speech codes that punish any dissent as “bigotry” — that’s a clear indicator that you’re dealing with manufactured consent that has an expiration date. It can be obtained only under extreme pressure. Basically “marriage equality” has been a hard core propaganda campaign and a very hard and fast sell. An excellent article that reflects on it all is “Gay Marriage: A Case Study in Conformism” by Brendan O’Neill in the British publication Spiked. This goes way beyond gay marriage. It seems that what we’re really dealing with here is the building of a closed society in which dissent will not be tolerated. But, no matter what happens, I think Katy has the answer.
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