Doug Mainwaring has emerged as a favorite Religious Right spokesman against marriage equality since he is not only a Tea Party leader but also openly gay.
Writing today in the right-wing American Thinker, Mainwaring alleges that statements by religious figures such as Pope Francis that appear supportive of gay rights “have poisoned faith” with “regressive, pagan ideologies.”
According to Mainwaring, marriage equality is a plot by “statists” who want to make sure that the “institution of marriage is obliterated from human civilization, in which case, we will no longer actually have a civilization.”
He adds that the main reason people increasingly favor marriage equality is because “a vast swath of the population just sick and tired of hearing about gays in the news day after day for the last few years” and “sick and tired of irrational accusations of bigotry and homophobia.”
In January Pope Francis recounted how a little girl in Buenos Aires told her teacher that she was sad because "my mother's girlfriend doesn't like me." In response, he said:
"The situation in which we live now provides us with new challenges which sometimes are difficult for us to understand," the Pope told leaders of religious orders, adding that the church "must be careful not to administer a vaccine against faith to them."
Yet how much more have these surprise validators, operating within the Church's warm embrace, vaccinated others against faith? Perhaps "vaccine" is too mild a term. Whether with good intentions or selfish ones, they have administered venom. They haven't vaccinated against faith: They have poisoned faith with their toxic regressive, pagan ideologies.
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The most recent Pew Poll found that public acceptance of same sex marriage is now up to 54%. Does this really reflect an enthusiastic embrace of the notion of same sex marriage? -- Or -- Is a vast swath of the population just sick and tired of hearing about gays in the news day after day for the last few years?
Maybe they're also sick and tired of irrational accusations of bigotry and homophobia every time they try to enter into a reasoned discussion about same sex marriage. Many who have been shut down for trying to engage in intellectually honest conversation, have concluded, "Why bother? Just let them have what they want. Maybe then they'll fade away."
Fade away? Don't count on it. There is never an end to progressive ideology. Statists never have enough power and control. This will never end until the very institution of marriage is obliterated from human civilization, in which case, we will no longer actually have a civilization.
I'm gay and I oppose same sex marriage because it is not marriage. It is something else. I, too, am tired of being labeled a "self loathing [sic] gay" and a "hater." I am not. But I refuse to be silenced by those who seek to manipulate and silence rather than enter into rational discussion.
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If you love humanity, and harbor no bigotry, but object to the demand to call two men or two women, married: "It is up to you, fearless reader, to act."
