A modern fad

Wish I'd said that!

[Reprinted from Issues & Views November 3, 2003]

What society has ever seen any point in "married" homosexuals? Set Jews, Christians, and Muslims aside. The Chinese? The Japanese? The Aztecs? The Vikings? The Apaches? The ancient Greeks and Romans? The list could be lengthened indefinitely, and the answer would always be the same. Marriage might be regarded as a mere necessity, even a regrettable necessity, but it was always for men and women.

If same-sex "marriage" were anything but a sudden modern fad, we'd surely have heard of it before. But it was never even a fad; it was merely a contradiction in terms, not worth considering. So even homosexuals never considered it.

Christianity took a more elevated and uncompromising view of marriage than the businesslike pagans did, raising it to the level of a sacrament; later the West mixed marriage with the charming but extraneous idea of romantic love. But it was always assumed to make sense only as a relation between men and women.

Today the contradiction in terms has become the latest thing. And as always, the most absurdly provincial idea is being accepted as the most advanced thinking, as long as it can be passed off as "modern."

-- Joseph Sobran, excerpt from "Is the Pope Square?," Sobran's newsletter, September 2003. He is author of several books, and is currently writing one about the abandonment of the Constitution. For the most candid insights on culture, government and society, subscribe to Sobran's newsletter.

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