Dobson: Media Provides Cover For Assault on Traditional Marriage

Dr. James Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family and an arch-enemy of GLBT equality, has written an essay that was posted on CNN.com.

There is actually one point where I agree with Dr. Dobson. He referred here to the recent vote in the U. S. Senate that failed to bring the Marriage Protection Act to the floor:

"As for the senators who voted against the amendment, the excuses they gave were pitiful. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-Rhode Island, Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minnesota, Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-New Hampshire, and many others thought they had the perfect alibi. They claimed that the issue should be handled at the state level. What hypocrisy!

All of these senators are smart enough to know that, first, it would create utter chaos to have 50 different definitions of marriage in one country, where every state is required by the Constitution to support the laws of the other 49. Come on, Senator McCain and company. You and your colleagues know better than that."

I totally agree with that point. If same-sex marriage is okay in Massachusetts, it should be okay in Texas. Expousing states rights is often congressional code for not having enough guts to take a stand on an issue.

Most of Dr. Dosbon's justification for prohibiting same-sex marriage is public opinion polls. If we allowed all of society's issues to be decided by a public vote, I doubt we would like the results. For example, there would probably still be slaves in the south and women would not have the right to vote, or many rights at all. I'm also very confident that Dr. Dobson won't feel the same way when opinion polls shift in favor of same-sex marriage, but by then he'll blame the media, as he does here for the Senate vote.

Dobson and others of his ilk keep talking about the "destruction" or "weakening" of the institution of marriage if men are allowed to marry other men, or women marrying other women, but they seldom if ever tell us why. If two gay men having the right to marry weakens my marriage to Brenda, that would say a lot more about the weak foundation our marriage had than it would the gay men.

CNN.com also posted some comments to Dobson's article. As usual in public forums, the most thoughtful responses came from those who favor same-sex marriage. This again, in my opinion, shows just how little substance there is to the arguement against other than quoting tradition.

Of course, Dr. Dobson would probably find a way to blame the media for that too.