Formal End to Judeo-Christian America Lambro (25) Clinton, Hillary Will (9) He U.S
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At Issue this week... Culture War by Dennis Prager July 8, 2015 2016 Election Formal end to Judeo-Christian America Lambro (25) Clinton, Hillary Will (9) he U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling sex marriage. They have rendered those And therein lies one of the reasons that Confederate Flag on the redefinition of marriage who believe that marriage should remain the notion of obedience to religion is so Buchanan (23) seals the end of America as the a man-woman institution the most vilified loathed by the cultural left. Biblical Juda- Chavez (27) FoundersT envisioned it. group in America today. ism and Christianity repeatedly dismiss Greenberg (20) It is the heart — not the mind, not mil- the heart as a moral guide. Krauthammer (10) From well before 1776 until the second Massie (20) half of the 20th century, the moral values lennia of human experience, nor any secu- Moreover, the war to replace God, Towery (24) of the United States were rooted in the Bi- lar or religious body of wisdom — that has Judeo-Christian values and the Bible as Culture War ble and its God. determined that marriage should no longer moral guides is far from over. What will Bozell (28) Unlike Europe, which defined itself as be defined as the union of a man and a this lead to? Buchanan (3) exclusively Christian, America became the woman. Here are three likely scenarios: Murchison (27) Prager (1) first Judeo-Christian society. The Ameri- 1. Becoming more and more like West- Dear Mark can Founders were Christians — either Dennis ern Europe, which has more or less created Levy (19) theologically or culturally — but they the first godless and religion-less societies Democrats were rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures. Prager in history. Among the consequences are Erickson (4) Even Americans who could not affirm less marriage and the birth of far fewer (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate Economy traditional Christian or Jewish theology children. Lambro (13) EPA affirmed the centrality of God to ethics. 2. More and more ostracizing — even- McCaughey (29) Americans, from the Founders on, under- IT IS THE HEART, not the mind, that tually outlawing — of religious Jews and Freedom stood that without God, there is no moral has concluded that gender has no signifi- Christians, clergy, and institutions that re- Napolitano (26) truth, only moral opinion — and assumed cance. That is the essence of the Brave New fuse to perform same-sex weddings. Marriage that those truths were to be gleaned from World being ushered in. For the first time 3. An America increasingly guided by Greenberg (29) the Bible more than anywhere else. in recorded history, whole societies are an- people’s hearts. Lowry (4) Schlafly (2) nouncing that gender has no significance. Shapiro (12) BEGINNING WITH the Supreme Same-sex marriage is, above all else, the IF YOU TRUST the human heart, you Media Bias Court’s ban on nondenominational school statement that male and female mean should feel confident about the future. If Bozell (6) prayer in 1962, the same-sex marriage de- nothing, are completely interchangeable, you don’t, you should be scared. Judeo- Coulter (7) cision has essentially completed the state’s and, yes, don’t even objectively exist, be- Christian values have made America, de- Malkin (30) secularization of American society. This is cause you are only the gender you feel you spite its flaws, uniquely free and prosper- Mosby, Marilyn Limbaugh (6) one thing about which both right and left, are. That explains the “T” in “LGBT.” The ous and the greatest force for good in the North Korea religious and secular, can agree. One side case for same-sex marriage is dependent world. Without those values, all of that Bay (30) may rejoice over the fact, and the other on the denial of sexual differences. will change. Obamacare may weep, but it is a fact. It is the heart, not the mind, that has Kudlow (14) And what has replaced Judaism, Chris- concluded that all a child needs is love, not June 30, 2015 Morris (28) Physician-Assisted Suicide tianity, Judeo-Christian values and the a father and mother. Saunders (23) Bible? Pope Francis The answer is: feelings. More and more Hollis (11) Americans rely on feelings to make moral Thomas (12) decisions. The heart has taken the place of Racism the Bible. Charen (5) Cushman (21) Years ago, I recorded an interview with Elder (22) a Swedish graduate student. I began by Malkin (9) asking her whether she believed in God. Second Amendment Of course not. Did she believe in religion? Williams (10) Of course not. South, The “Where, then, do you get your notion of Lowry (24) Supreme Court right and wrong?” I asked. Barone (15) “From my heart,” she responded. Harsanyi (17) That is why five members of the Su- Limbaugh (16) preme Court have redefined marriage. Saunders (18) They consulted their hearts. Sowell (5) Thomas (15) That is understandable. Any religious Will (17) conservative who does not acknowledge Trivia Bits homosexuals’ historic persecution or does Paquet (14) not understand gays who desire to marry Trump, Donald lacks compassion. Tyrrell (8) But let’s be honest. This lack of com- World Powers Barone (31) passion is more than matched by the mean- ness expressed by the advocates of same- 2 Conservative Chronicle MARRIAGE: June 30, 2015 How Congress should respond to Justice Kennedy ustice Kennedy’s opinion for a 5-4 Only the union of husband and wife often called “under-privileged,” but the Congress should reaffirm the fac- majority of the Supreme Court is honored in our cultural heritage — most important privilege they lack is the tual foundation of the 1996 Defense of has rightly been condemned for depicted in thousands of works of art privilege of a stable home formed by a Marriage Act, which Justice Kennedy its Jlack of grounding in the Constitution- and chronicled in thousands of works husband and wife who are legally mar- knocked out two years ago in the Wind- al text he is sworn to uphold.Unable to of literature — which have inspired and ried to each other and jointly respon- sor case. It is simply a fact, which can- find gay marriage in either the due pro- ennobled people over millennia. Only sible for rearing the children they bring not be reasonably denied, that the 1,138 cess clause or the equal protection clause the union of husband and wife can pro- into the world. federal laws that refer to marriage (such of the Fourteenth Amendment, Kennedy vide the biological A crash pro- as the joint income tax return, tax deduc- ultimately rests his case on what Justice connection that gram to rebuild tions and credits, homemaker and other Clarence Thomas sarcastically called the attaches a child Phyllis the traditional dependent benefits in Social Security, “dignity clause” of the Constitution. to its parents and, Schlafly American nuclear and veterans’ benefits) were intended by through them, to family is urgent- Congress to apply only to the union of (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate THERE IS NO such clause, of other members of ly necessary for husband and wife. course, although Kennedy’s majority the human family. continuing our na- After reciting the foregoing reasons opinion mentioned “dignity” nine times. The union of husband and wife is the tion’s political and economic success and many others, Congress should con- But if dignity can be conferred by deci- only means of tracing history over gen- in this century. This won’t happen if we clude its resolution by formally resolv- sions of the Supreme Court, then Con- erations. Royal dynasties, such as the transform marriage into a means of giv- ing that the traditional family, founded gress can do so, too. family that has ruled Great Britain since ing “dignity” to mostly childless homo- on a married husband and wife, carries Therein lies a first response: Con- 1066 — the same family that chartered sexuals. special dignity and deserves special gress should formally recognize the the North American colonies beginning Once Congress is on a roll to confer recognition because it provides unique dignity of opposite-sex married couples in 1607 — would have been impossible dignity, it should confer an extra mea- benefits to society. and resolve to protect that dignity in our without it. sure of dignity on the single-earner This is not to deny that every human laws. A joint resolution should recite the Only the union of husband and wife family, where a provider-husband is person has value and dignity, or that many reasons why the special union of can provide a stable home, as a self- the principal breadwinner and his wife other domestic relationships may have husband and wife has been honored for supporting economic unit suitable for is dedicated to the job of homemaker, a some value in limited circumstances. “millennia,” as Justice Kennedy admit- rearing and educating children.That is role more socially beneficial than work- But Congress should respond to Justice ted. why Karl Marx, in his Communist Man- ing in the paid labor force. Kennedy with a ringing affirmation of Only the union of husband and wife ifesto of 1848, called for “abolition of the unique dignity that should be ac- was recognized in the foundational texts the family” as a necessary step towards CONGRESS SHOULD affirm the corded to society’s foundational unit, of Western Civilization, including the a revolutionary communist utopia. many studies that report the singular the marriage of husband and wife. Book of Genesis as well as the classical Only the union of husband and wife advantages of husband-wife marriage writers of ancient Greece and Rome.