#210 (5/11) - "Obama and the Truth About Marriage"

[NOTE: President Obama's announcement on Wednesday saying he NOW supports homosexual (I long ago stated that I will never use the term "gay" to refer to the homosexual relationships)because it is a misnomer) marriage. If he was really honest, he has long supported special rights for homosexuals (see article below) and the way the decision "evolved" was after he had weighed it in political terms. Be assured that there will be more on this that I will post later but despite what the President said, the decision was not based on biblical truth but selective truth. In the second article posted (in part), you will read about the fund-raiser he just happensed/em> to attend in Hollywood the day after his announcement. I note the following quote from that article: "Twenty-four hours ago, we were talking about what Romney had to do to get social conservatives on board," said Ralph Reed, chairman of the conservative Faith & Freedom Coalition. "Now, they're scrambling for a seat in first class."]
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- by Ryan T. Anderson and Thomas Messner; May 10, 2012 http://blog.heritage.org/2012/05/10/obama-and-the-truth-about-marriage/

Yesterday, President Obama announced that he supports same-sex marriage. This was not exactly a surprise. Sure, when running for Senate in 2004, Obama said that “marriage is between a man and a woman.” And when campaigning for the presidency in 2008, he restated that view and also claimed he did “not support gay marriage.”

The truth, however, is that President Obama has repeatedly done and said things that directly undermine marriage as one man and one woman. President Obama has openly opposed state marriage amendments, such as Proposition 8 in California and the hugely successful amendment adopted by voters in North Carolina earlier this week. These amendments would protect marriage from judicial activism in state courts and let voters decide the question through democratic processes. But Obama views such measures as “divisive” and “discriminatory.”

President Obama also supports repealing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a federal law that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman for purposes of federal law. And President Obama’s Justice Department has taken extraordinary steps to undermine DOMA in the courts, first by offering a soft defense and then by offering no defense at all.

These seeming inconsistencies led many to conclude that the President wasn’t really against gay marriage but was saying so for political reasons. Now, the President has finally owned up to what many people already suspected: that he supports same-sex marriage. It is good that President Obama has decided to be more straightforward about what he really believes about marriage. The American public deserves at least that much.

But the President’s so-called “evolution” on the timeless institution of marriage marks an unfortunate turn. Society has a civilizational interest in promoting marital childbearing and the faithfulness of husbands and wives to each other and their children. Marriage is a vital social institution that promotes that interest.

The reason the state is in the marriage business in the first place is because sex makes babies and babies need mothers and fathers. As one source has put it, “but for children, there would be no need of any institution concerned with sex.” That “institution” is marriage, and it brings together men and women as husbands and wives to become fathers and mothers to any children their unions bring forth. This binding together doesn’t happen by accident. Binding fathers to mothers and their children requires strong cultural and legal norms to channel adult sexual desire and behavior into an institution where childbearing leads to responsible childrearing.

Furthermore, undoubtedly one reason voters in 32 states have voted to protect marriage is the belief that, for children, the ideal situation is to have both a mother and a father. This belief is supported by social science, which demonstrates that children do best when reared by their married biological mothers and fathers. Mothering and fathering are not interchangeable phenomena. The ideal for children is love and attention from both a father and mother, as well as the role modeling that each can provide of masculinity and femininity.

By embracing same-sex marriage, President Obama has invited everyone in the nation to consider this basic issue: What is marriage? The President has sided with those who would redefine marriage by declaring that mothers and fathers are expendable and sexual complementarity does not matter. Under this view, marriage is whatever two consenting adults want it to be.But once the President accepts these ideas, can he explain why marriage should involve only two people? Can he explain why, under his conception, childrearing would continue to have any meaningful relationship to marriage? Can he explain why commitments of permanence and sexual exclusivity should be the norm for marriage? Throw away the core meaning of marriage and these cherished norms logically go with it.

There is a truth about marriage, and most people intuitively grasp that it has something to with mothers and fathers, the offspring they bear through sexual union, and the mutual cooperation required to effectively rear offspring throughout many years of dependency. The marriage debate is about whether our laws will recognize and promote this truth or, rather, label it a falsehood and force society to fall in line.

President Obama has made clear where he stands on this issue. In the coming months, voting members of the American public will have the opportunity to do the same.

[bold and italics emphasis mine]
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Obama's New Strategy: Court Gay Donors, Liberal Base; Thursday, 10 May 2012; http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/obama-clooney-gay-fundraisers/2012/05/10/id/438613?s=al&promo_code=EDE1-1

The following are excerpts from the above article: "...Obama, who was ready Thursday [the day after his homosexual marriage endorsement] to dive into the embrace of Hollywood's wealthy elite at a gala fund-raising event, said he had planned to announce his support for gay marriage before his party's convention in early September. But he told ABC News that his hand was forced by Biden, though he said his vice president spoke out in support of same-sex marriage out of a "generosity of spirit."

"The president made his historical endorsement on the eve of a sold-out fundraiser Thursday evening at the Los Angeles home of movie star George Clooney. The timing of the event is creating a blockbuster confluence of high celebrity, big money and committed activism. Hollywood is home to some of the most high-profile backers of gay marriage and the 150 donors who are paying $40,000 to attend Clooney's dinner Thursday night will no doubt feel newly invigorated by Obama's watershed announcement the day before. Overall, the dinner is expected to raise close to $15 million — ..."

[bold and italics emphasis mine]