GAY MARRIAGE - A THREAT TO IGNORANCE AND INTOLERANCE

Governor David Paterson recently announced that he would push for a gay marriage bill in New York State and the battle lines were drawn between the bigots and those who still believe that “all” Americans were endowed by their Creator with the inalienable right of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” and not just breeders.

Nothing like the possibility of gay marriage to bring out the bigotry characteristic of many Americans – that Blacks are against gay marriage is amazing that Latinos are against it is not. The former seem to have forgotten that it was bigotry that denied them civil rights for over 200 years and the later are predominantly Catholic and as such can at least plead ignorance.

Leading the way against the bill is the new archbishop or in the present instance “archbigot” of the New York Diocese, Timothy Dolan who claimed that permitting gay marriage would be a detriment to civilization and he would “put the power of the church” behind defeating the bill.

The end of civilization? Surely Timothy Dolan knows that the institution of marriage wasn’t even a sacrament until 1563 so the institution of marriage hasn’t been around for thousands of years like present day misogynists in cassocks and their true believers would have us accept.

In reality marriage did occur among pagans in the form of common law but civilized Christians were concerned with placing the woman’s property in her husband’s control and keeping it there. In essence Christian marriage morality was nothing more than the means of taking away a woman’s independence and turning it over to a man. To prove their disdain for women a Christian husband could beat his wife with impunity and no legal or religious agency would defend her.

The historical record reflects that according to the Puritans the husband exercised the authority of God over his wife and in Britain wives were legally classified with minors and idiots and consigned to the custody of their husbands. In the civilized U.S. it was in the early 1960s before a judge ruled that the sanctity of the home could be invaded by the state if a man was beating his wife.

Indeed a woman was always subservient in Christian theology. According to Christianity the woman’s duty in marriage was one of submission and the husband was by the laws of the Christian God her superior. In essence “women” became a man’s property so let’s knock off the bullshit from the pulpit about the sanctity of marriage and gay marriage being a threat to civilization.

The reality is that it is not gay marriage which threatens civilization but rather it is the Christian concept of marriage between a man and a woman which is the actual threat to civilization when women are considered to be subservient as evidenced by Church’s contempt for women who dare choose whether or not to bear a child and the Church’s blatant hatred of those who are biologically wired to prefer a same sex relationship after all who would want to be a lower form of life, who would want to be a repository for the penis of God’s authority on earth, a woman according to Christian theology.

If the Archbigot of the New York Diocese wants to engage in the political arena and do whatever is in his power to insure the defeat of gay marriage then perhaps the New York State legislature should consider removing the tax exempt status from the institutions of organized superstition then he can bitch about his religious freedom being challenged instead of trying to deny the equal rights of our gay brothers and sisters, our fellow Americans.