Popular Culture Review Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring 2005 | Page 70
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Popular Culture Review
“Will a new Bible be mandated?” No one is suggesting a new Bible,
although Thomas Jefferson thought writing one without the miraculous and
dogmatic stuff would be a good idea (see professor of history Joseph Ellis’s
award-winning biography American Sphinx: The Character o f Thomas
Jefferson). The Bible is what it is, and the histories of the organized religions it
represents are filled with bloodshed and hatred. The Bible can be an inspiring
literary text, but it can also be used to incite fear, hatred, and bigotry, as well as
justify and sanction heinous acts against humanity. In the hands of the State,
religion has historically become a weapon of mass destruction.
9. Other nations are watching our march toward homosexual marriage and
will follow our lead.
Dr. Dobson cites a personal conversation with “Darrell Reid, president
of Focus on the Family Canada, [who] told me recently that his country is
carefully monitoring what is happening in the United States. If we take this step
off a cliff, the family on every continent will splinter at an accelerated rate” (61).
Both Dobson and Reid would seem to be more than a bit behind the times:
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, a Catholic, has
supported a proposed law that would conform to court rulings
in defining marriage as a union between two people, rather
than a man and a woman.
“As prime minister of Canada, he has the moral responsibility
to protect the equality of Canadians,” spokesman, Thoren
Hud yma, told the Globe and Mail newspapers in explaining
that Mr. Chretien’s duty was to the public, not his Church.
—AP, July 31, 2003
In Belgium, where three-quarters of the population is Roman
Catholic, the Flemish Christian Democrats who voted in favor
of the law [legalizing same-sex unions] said the issue boiled
down to supporting all kinds of families. “For us, what’s
important is sustained relationships,” said Luk Vanmaercke, a
party spokesman. “We do not want to exclude gay couples
from sustained relationships. On the contrary, we want to
encourage them to take that responsibility too.”
“It’s the Vatican’s good right to make statements like this
[condemning state-sanctioned same-sex marriage], but here in
the Netherlands, we have separation of church and state,” said