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MAY 1, 2008
'Dictatorship' violates conscience, freedom
The hoopla over the break-up of the polygamist cult in Texas has left me flummoxed. This preoccupation with what is clearly morally repugnant, unsafe and just plain bizarre makes me wonder why similar reactions are absent in the face of the ongoing, so-called same-sex marriage debate.
I’m choosing my words carefully because in both examples, the relationships formed are not de facto marriages. Marriage, by definition, exists only between one man and one woman.
This, I fear, is a truth slowly being eroded in the face of our cultural corruption. The fact that we have to have a national debate over this strikes me as representative of how far we as a country have strayed from our origin as a Christian nation.
Truth mocked
On college campuses across the land, professors routinely dismiss the notion that our Founding Fathers were Christians and that our system only works in a society that endeavors to follow the Ten Commandments. Any student who is brave enough to try to defend Christianity at a secular university today had better brace himself for ridicule and damage to his grade point average.
The mocking of people who believe in absolute standards of good and evil is a national pastime for many in politics and entertainment, too. Yet our highly unpopular president, often derided for his verbal gaffes, welcomed Pope Benedict XVI to the White House with these words:
“In a world where some no longer believe that we can distinguish between simple right and wrong, we need your message to reject this ‘dictatorship of relativism’ and embrace a culture of justice and truth.”
Those who follow all things Catholic immediately recognized the use of the phrase “dictatorship of relativism,” a choice of words that the pope — then-Cardinal Ratzinger — himself used in a 2005 homily. In a nutshell, he stated that in today’s society, a faith based on the Creed is termed “fundamentalism” while living as though there are no moral certainties and striving simply to satisfy one’s own ego is considered more enlightened.
In coining the phrase “dictatorship of relativism,” the pope was decrying the fact that we are moving towards a society in which people make up the rules as they go along rather than live by moral absolutes.
His use of the term “dictatorship” was in no way an overstating of the case.
Consider the persecution being suffered by a Christian photographer in our neighboring state of New Mexico. Last month, the state’s Human Rights Commission found that for her refusal to photograph a lesbian couple’s commitment ceremony, Elaine Huguenin must pay $6,637 in attorney’s fees and costs. Her attorney, Jordan Lorence, says he plans to appeal the ruling, noting that his client’s right to freedom of religion, guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, has been violated.
Shining moment
If Huguenin had been willing to go along with the trend towards celebrating same-sex unions — in violation of basic Christian beliefs — she would have had no problem with the state commission. She wouldn’t have had to find an attorney, miss valuable time away from her business and go through the mental anguish of legal proceedings. I sincerely hope that Christians in New Mexico are supporting her photography business.
But what really strikes me is that compelling Christians to violate their consciences in order to satisfy a politically correct view of marriage smacks more of dictatorship — as our pope wisely pointed out — rather than honoring our American ideal of freedom of speech and religion. A freedom, mind you, that recognizes the existence of good and evil and acts accordingly.
The truth about marriage and morality in general may have been overlooked in the fixation on the cult in Texas and obfuscated by the ruling of a petty commission in New Mexico, but for one shining day in Washington, D.C., while over 13,000 witnesses looked on, Pope Benedict and President Bush reminded everyone that the truth is ignored at our own peril.
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