Monday, March 07, 2005

an interesting take on revisionist history

From Neela Banerjee's article in the NY Times (Black Churches Struggle Over Their Role in Politics), comes the funniest quote about same-sex marriage ever uttered (courtesy of Bishop Harry R Jackson, Jr):

"Historically when societies have gone off kilter, there has been rampant same-sex marriage," Mr. Jackson said in an interview. "What tends to happen is that people tend to devalue the institution of marriage as a whole. People start rearing kids without two parents, and the black community already has this incredibly alarming and, if I may say, this shameful number of babies being born without fathers."

Lets review periods of time in which societies have gone "off-kilter":
  • the heyday of the Spanish Inquistion
  • the Crusades
  • the War of the Roses (English history, not the movie)
  • US history prior to emancipation of slaves/end of slavery
  • Salem Witch Trials
  • WWII
  • Viet Nam
Just think about it and you'll see same-sex marriage was absolutely rampant during all those periods of time. Had it not been for Bishop Jackson, I would have believed the rest of the religious right when they said that historically marriage has been between a man & a woman.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually the phenomenon is exactly the reverse: it was when folks like Stalin and Hitler were running things and when society was most off track that the slaughter of gays became permissible, rather than society becoming permissive of their unions. The good bishop stands with those fine figures of history in his position on the matter.

Ol Cranky said...

To paraphrase Ambrose Bierce, G-d alone knows the future, but only a revisionist can alter the past.