The controversy surrounding Chick-fil-A’s CEO’s statement in support of traditional marriage is just the latest example of freedom — and decency — being trampled in the name of the insatiable need to legitimize sexual license.
We are constantly told by partisans of the sexual revolution, whether they be defenders of (free-to-all, taxpayer subsidized) contraception or advocates for same-sex marriage, that sex is no big deal, that those with traditional sexual morality need to just relax, stop being uptight, and let all live each according to their own proclivities, so long as they don’t harm the innocent.
OK, I basically have no problem with that notion, but the other side belies this casual attitude when they feel their sexual mores are in the slightest way attacked. They launch into nasty, ugly attacks on their opponents, dismiss civility, and, in the case of Chick-fil-A, even threaten to use government power to punish transgressors of the latest party line on sexuality.
So, sex is a big deal after all, isn’t it? Let’s not kid ourselves. Look at history.
The greatest king of Jewish history, David, forever tarnished his legacy and kingdom due to his lust for Bathsheba, whose husband he had killed just so he could be with her. Or how about John the Baptist, who was beheaded by King Herod simply out of the lustful passion inspired by the dancing of Salome, his stepdaughter?
King Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church in order to satisfy his desire for Ann Boleyn, an act of double irony since shortly before he had been given the title “Defender of the Faith” by the pope for his staunch defense of Catholic doctrine, and shortly after he had Boleyn killed for adultery.
In our own time some of the key social and political battles are waged over sexuality, be it abortion, contraception, marriage, divorce, etc.
In perhaps the greatest affront to the principles of our country, President Obama reneged on his promise to exempt religious institutions from having to provide morally objectionable services and, with the imperiousness Henry VIII would have been proud of, simply informed the Catholic Church and everyone else that they would have to provide contraception and abortifacient drugs for free.
Why, when such drugs are already available at almost no cost from Planned Parenthood or other entities? Why do I and every other citizen have to subsidize free contraception when so many other forms of healthcare, forms which actually cure or prevent disease, are not going to be free?
And then there’s gay marriage. Those who believe it to be wrong, a belief universally accepted and affirmed throughout human history, are now mocked and calumniated for being hateful, bigoted, intolerant.
In another breathtaking act of imperial fiat, Obama instructed the Justice Department to stop enforcing the Defense of Marriage Act to help clear the way for its repeal and the federal support for gay marriage.
The Executive Branch, responsible for executing the laws of the land and protecting the Constitution, is betraying both sacred trusts out of a desire to normalize, legitimize, and in fact promote sexual practices that had until very recently been considered immoral, unwise, and destructive.
So don’t tell me sex is no big deal when a president, a political party, and bands of activists throughout the land are willing and eager to trash the Constitution and the very underpinnings of modern, constitutional democracy to get their way come hell or high water. God help us all.
Trey Hoffman
Peachtree City, Ga.
