Visionaries, Susanna wonders why we cannot just continue to recognize marriage as contractual monogamy, expanding it only with regard to the sex of the spouses? She says she can light a cigarette without starting a forest fire, and should also be able to marry her same-sex partner without exposing herself to the unwanted attentions of …
Standby For Polygamy
Visionaries, My question and concern is this. If we stop imposing a particular religious view through the mechanism of civil law (which is, we agree, what our current laws amount to), and if we do this for the sake of allowing homosexual marriage, what logical reason do we have for stopping there? We suddenly cannot …
Things We Used to Think
Visionaries, Jan asks, “how can one person swear to be monogamist to more than one person? Is this not an important part of marriage?” This is the point. We used to think so. But then, we used to think that marriage involved a man and a woman. Why do we retain what we retain and …
State Approved Daisy Chains
Dear visionaries, Okay, Chad. This should be fun. Thus far, we have agreed that as far as the state is concerned, marriage is a secular legal contract and nothing more. You persuaded me. Now, let’s follow this out. What interest does the state have, and what basis does it have, for limiting said contracts to …
Atheistic Wowsers
Visionaries, Far from this being a demonstration of how illogical I am, it is actually a demonstration of whether or not ethical relativists have the courage of their convictions. If we reject the Christian morality that marriage consists of one man, one woman, one time, and we base this rejection on the fact that marriage …
An Alternative to Darwin
A close observer of the scientific community can see a number of omnious cracks in the monolithic wall of naturalistic evolution. From the potent challenges of the Intelligent Design movement, to the belated recognition that evolutionary ideas have had bad consequences (e.g. From Darwin to Hitler by Weikart), Darwinists are clearly on the defensive — …
Government in the Bedroom
Visionaries, There is an important difference between sexual hypocrisy, which our nation has in spades, and which practices privately what it condemns publicly, and the tragic way of removing that hypocrisy, which is to bring yourself to approve the sin formally. Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue, and we always need to …
Culture Skirmishes
Visionaries, I sent this response to Vera’s weekend piece to The Daily News this morning. FYI. Cordially, Douglas Wilson Response to Vera Vera White laments the fact that Moscowans are becoming less civil to one another (July 19/20, 2003), and in the course of her discussion she locates the source of the contagion–Christ Church. As …
Racism and Relativism
Dear visionaries, Steven, thanks for the interaction. I don’t have any problem agreeing with you that in looking for the motive forces for the colonialism of the British Empire, and now the emerging American Empire, one of the central things we should do is follow the money. My point was not that (for example) the …
Not So Simple
Visionaries, and Judith, Thanks for the interaction. Wouldn’t we all agree that some of the patronizing attitudes of the past (of the “white man’s burden” sort) could be motivated entirely by kindness, but that the person extending that kindness had the racist view that his own race was necessarily superior to the other? Thus, benevolent …