Vice President Dick Cheney’s recent comments backing away from President Bush’s constitutional amendment banning gay marriage drew criticism from the conservative Family Research Council, with President Tony Perkins saying: “I find it hard to believe the vice president would stray from the administration’s position on defense policy or tax policy. For many pro-family voters, protecting traditional marriage ranks ahead of the economy and job creation as a campaign issue.”
Earth to Tony Perkins (and the religious right generally): Defense of the country and respecting the right of individuals to keep more of what they earn are two of the most important issues facing our government. Anyone who places social concerns above survival and economics is irrational. What you feel about people of the same sex getting married pales in comparison. In fact, it’s not even a political issue. As long as the Republican Party continues to pay attention to people like you, they will–at best–merely scrape by to victory. This year, I suspect you’re providing the margin of defeat.
Grow up and stop mixing religion with government. I want our government to limit itself to respecting freedom at home and abroad–not imposing your religious attitudes on the rest of us. I want freedom from religion, not merely freedom of religion.
By the way: a moral government does not “protect families.” A moral government protects individuals, specifically from force and fraud only. Protecting families can only mean one thing: sacrificing one individual for the sake of another’s definition of “family.” No thank you.
