As the night the day…

June 28, 2013

As the night the day…

JEFFREY BROWN: I want to pick up first on what the
president was just saying about this issue of couples married in one
state moving to a state where perhaps that's not recognized.

How big a deal, first, is this patchwork system that we have?

WINNIE STACHELBERG: Well, the patchwork system is a
very big deal, which is why we are eager to have marriage equality in
all 50 states, because the patchwork just doesn't work for a married
couple.

What exists right now is in the 13 states and the District of
Columbia where are you legally married, you are legally married for the
purposes of state benefits, and now, with DOMA's demise, federal
benefits, the tricky issue comes up if you have a legal marriage in
Massachusetts, one of those states, and then you move to Alabama. You're
still married, and the question now remains, do you get federal
benefits living in Alabama?

From PBS. It's a group conversation, and the traditionalist position is represented briefly and inadequately by Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo).The consensus of the others is "you people are going to be despised just as racists are despised."

But it's not the same thing, and millions of people know it's not the same thing, and no words and no laws can make it be the same thing.

So, how long is it going to be until this rule is enforced on all fifty states? Two years? Five? Probably not more than ten. I think I hear threads snapping in the fabric of society.

Maclin Horton

Current Affairs, State of the Culture

3 responses to “As the night the day…”

Marianne

June 29, 2013

I just came across a video of a 1960 BBC interview with Evelyn Waugh. The woman introducing it says it shows him as prickly and uncooperative. I didn’t really see that; I saw reserve. But I did note that early on, the interviewer starts questioning him about religion, very much hoping to point out Waugh’s hypocrisy, since he was obviously not a perfect human being. Reminded me that the media’s animus toward Christians, and especially Catholics, has been around for a very long time.
Anyway, your comment in this post about the “traditionalist position [being] represented briefly and inadequately by Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo)” made me realize how much we need someone with Waugh’s abilities and renown to speak up.

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Mac

June 29, 2013

For the BBC, it’s not only the media-secular-sophisticate thing. There’s probably also the long tradition of British anti-Catholicism at work there. It’s remarkable how people will abandon all of classical Protestantism except that.
We probably have some people who can speak with great ability. But we don’t have anybody with the kind of intellectual or artistic reputation among secular people that Waugh had.
One of the things that specifically made me say Rep. Hartzler’s defense was inadequate was that it relied, as defenders of marriage tend to do, on the argument that having a father and mother in the same household is better for children. I’m sure that’s true, but it’s rhetorically weak, when so very many children are born out of wedlock and so many marriages end in divorce. But then what kind of argument can you make that anyone who didn’t already agree? I tend to go with “Don’t you see this is absurd?”, which is definitely a non-winner.

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Mac

July 1, 2013

I finally took the time to watch that Waugh interview. It’s fascinating. I thought the interviewer was odd. I really wasn’t sure whether he was trying to gather evidence of hypocrisy. He seemed so mechanical, as if he was just reading from somebody else’s list of questions. It would be interesting to see if he was substantially different with other interviewees.

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