A commentary on marriage by former Congressman Joe Walsh:
Of Marriage and Political Courage
Joe Walsh
It takes courage to do what you believe is right, even if the whole country seems like it’s moving in the opposite direction.
I was thinking about political courage last night after the Illinois Senate passed same sex marriage legislation.
It is true that the media in this country is so giddy in their support for same sex marriage that it has had an impact on the polls.
In many states like Illinois, to support traditional marriage is to stand against “equality” and “fairness.”
To be OUTSPOKEN in support of traditional marriage is to be ridiculed and to risk being called a homophobe, a bigot, and often much worse.
Many become afraid and give in to the media and the “polls” as our Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady did last month when he came out in support of same sex marriage because, as he said, it would help Republicans win elections.
“So brave, so enlightened,” the Chicago Sun Times and the Chicago Tribune and the rest of the liberal media cheered.
So easy.
What is hard to do is stand against public opinion and stand for what is right.
What is hard to do is to stand in the public square and defend traditional marriage as the bedrock of society that it is and always has been, as the institution best designed by God to raise and develop children.
What is hard to do is to defend the religious institutions and businesses whose basic religious freedoms will be in jeopardy if same sex marriage becomes law in Illinois.
We have precious little time to defend traditional marriage and religious freedom in this state.
All of us must take to the public square immediately and do what is hard. You will be ridiculed, the media will go after you personally, and they will laugh at you for mentioning God.
Have the courage to do what is right.
Defend traditional marriage and defend religious freedom.
Now.
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To learn who voted how on gay marriage in the Illinois Senate, plus which Republicans spoke against it and which ones vote for the bill, click here.
To be outspoken about traditional marriage, it to show a deep abiding love for tradition:
Like Illinois Government over the past 50 or so years.
Like patriarchy before the new divorce code, and new order of protection laws.
Like before women’s suffrage
Like before the 13th amendment.
Like in puritanical New England, during the Salem Witch Trials.
Why didn’t any of those people have the courage to continue those brave traditions?
I’m with Watching on this.
Pretty sad how you play the victim card Cal. Name one good reason that isn’t religion-motivated that has to do with limiting the ability for the LGBT community to marry. ONE reason. I bet you can’t. What’s sad is you believe that “freedom of religion” is a one way street. This is not a Christian country. America was not founded on the ideals of Christianity. It was founded by brilliant men who knew the importance of protecting the rights of the minority – in this case the LGBT community. Don’t believe me?
“Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man”- Thomas Jefferson
“The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God like another Cerberus, with one body and three heads, had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and thousands of martyrs.” -Thomas Jefferson
“It is too late in the day for men of sincerity to pretend they believe in the Platonic mysticisms that three are one, and one is three; and yet the one is not three, and the three are not one- Thomas Jefferson
“And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with all this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this the most venerated reformer of human errors.”- Thomas Jefferson
“There is not one redeeming feature in our superstition of Christianity. It has made one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.”- Thomas Jefferson
“Lighthouses are more useful than churches.”- Ben Franklin
“The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.”- Ben Franklin
“I looked around for God’s judgments, but saw no signs of them.”- Ben Franklin
“In the affairs of the world, men are saved not by faith, but by the lack of it.”- Ben Franklin
“This would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in
it”- John Adams
“The New Testament, they tell us, is founded upon the prophecies of the Old; if so, it must follow the fate of its foundation.’- Thomas Paine
“Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.”- Thomas Paine
“I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any Church that I know of. My own mind is my own Church. Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all.”- Thomas Paine
“Take away from Genesis the belief that Moses was the author, on which only the strange belief that it is the word of God has stood, and there remains nothing of Genesis but an anonymous book of stories, fables, and traditionary or invented absurdities, or of downright lies.”- Thomas Paine
“All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.”- Thomas Paine
“It is the fable of Jesus Christ, as told in the New Testament, and the wild and visionary doctrine raised thereon, against which I contend. The story, taking it as it is told, is blasphemously obscene.”- Thomas Paine
“Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause. Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by the difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be depreciated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far that we should never again see the religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society.”- George Washington
“The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my profession.”- Abraham Lincoln
“It may not be easy, in every possible case, to trace the line of separation between the rights of religion and the Civil authority with such distinctness as to avoid collisions and doubts on unessential points. The tendency to unsurpastion on one side or the other, or to a corrupting coalition or alliance between them, will be best guarded agst. by an entire abstinence of the Gov’t from interfence in any way whatsoever, beyond the necessity of preserving public order, and protecting each sect agst. trespasses on its legal rights by others.”- James Madison
“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.”- James Madison
Seriously, ANYONE: How can a divorced man defend marriage?
or a person who believes marriage is for pro-creation and them supports an individual who pro-created then chooses to for-go financial support?
Re: Joe says:02/15/2013 at 4:48 pm
Wake up Joe…. there are many resons for divorce and I believe in most cases both parties have some fault in the break-up!
Ride down to Springfield, Illinois with Kathy Barnette and Friends on this Wednesday, Feb. 20th, to participate in Defend Marriage Lobby Day.
Go to http://www.TruthExchange.net to register and find out more details.
There’s still room on the bus.
The bus ride, alone, is an event you will not want to miss out on – filled with Fellowship, Comradery, Praise, and intellectual stimulation.
God bless…
WEEK-TV reported there were “hundreds” lobbying their legislators that day–and that half of them were there to lobby in favor of marriage equality. Most of the anti-gay demonstrators were bussed from Peoria at the expense of the Catholic bishop there. Sorry, Ms. Barnette, our legislators knew about the free ride anti-gays had to get there.
http://www.cinewsnow.com/news/local/Hundreds-rally-against-gay-marriage–192153811.html