Marriage ad from WV

The Family Policy Council of West Virginia has a project called WV4Marriage. They’ve made this short video explaining their goal of keeping same-sex marriage unrecognized in their state. (Thanks to Wayne Besen at the Truth Wins Out blog for pointing it out.) As much as I hate the idea that more people might see this video, I think it’s worth it to embed it here, for the purposes of deconstructing its message.

Marriage began in the heart of God, and he designed it perfectly.

The building block of every community, every culture, every race, every nation.

Oh, really? What about the cultures where one man is allowed to have many wives, or where one woman is allowed many husbands? That’s right, you sent missionaries there to teach the people that their cultures were evil. Then, of course, there’s the older versions of Judeo-Christian marriage which you now pretend never happened. The way they think of marriage today is the way everyone on the planet has ever, in the history of humanity, conceived of it. No arranged marriage, or dowries, or being stoned to death for coveting your neighbor’s wife, right? In these statements, “God” naturally refers only to the Christian deity as we currently understand the concept, which is incredibly intellectually dishonest.

But today, that ideal is under an unrelenting attack, and same-sex marriage in West Virginia is a closer reality than you may think.

One misconception here has to do with what the “ideal” is. Proponents of legalizing same-sex marriage realize that the “ideal” marriage is one in which both partners love and respect one another, and can provide a supportive home for children if they choose to have them. This so-called “family” organization is caught up in the genders of the couple being married, which has nothing to do with the quality of their relationship or how beneficial their relationship is to a stable society. (I don’t know in the case of this one in particular, but many “family” organizations also advocate against divorce in cases with serious emotional abuse or other awful situations. They’re too focused on the one mother, one father look of a marriage, and not focused enough on what really makes a relationship good.)

There’s another misconception relating to the word “attack.” Same-sex marriage advocates don’t want to ban these traditional marriages, but rather to allow all adults to marry their consenting adult partners. If you think the ideal is the one that WV4Marriage describes, then by all means, have your marriage be like that. There’s no “attack” forcing you to have something different. Imagine a backyard barbecue expert who knows how to cook the perfect steak. Maybe he even hosts parties for his friends where they all come over and talk about how this steak is the perfect meal. Are any of them under attack when a vegetarian moves in down the street? Do they need to enact local ordinances forcing the vegetarian to learn to love beef? No. No one is attacking anyone, or even mildly inconveniencing anyone. Everyone can eat their dinners in peace.

But activists outside our state…

Yeah, very cute tactic here. All the gay people live in other places, weird and crazy places, but definitely not West Virginia! Well, they certainly won’t admit to being gay while ads like this are out there.

Church daycare. Faith-based marriage counseling. Christian adoption agencies. Religious schools. Christian businesses. Doctors. Professionals. Para-church ministries. Even the church, its clergy, and lay leadership.

This is the litany of things which are supposedly under attack. I admit I don’t understand the issues referred to by each item in the list, but you have to agree some of them cast a pretty wide (vague) net. Christian adoption agencies, religious schools, sounds like federal funding regulations, perhaps nondiscriminatory hiring practices. Doctors, probably that’s abortion- or contraception-related. But really, professionals? Yes, someone save the professionals!

With the full weight of the law standing against the faithful.

Just another example of alarmist rhetoric. If you think your church is under attack from the government every time there’s a law permitting someone nearby to refrain from becoming a member of your church… yeah, I guess there’s cause for alarm. But please, get real.

A weekend trip to San Francisco for a West Virginia same sex couple plus a pro-bono ACLU attorney could easily become a nightmare for marriage in West Virginia.

Wait, I thought this was all being done by activists outside your state.

What’s also clear is that to pass a marriage amendment in West Virginia this year, the church must lead.

Translation: if people aren’t constantly being berated by their religious leaders to vote a particular way, West Virginia might commit the unspeakable atrocity of letting individuals control their own lives in circumstances where their actions have no effect on others.

2009 is West Virginia’s best opportunity to take a stand for God’s design.

About God’s design, I’m still not quite sure… which one?

There are, of course, a million other objectionable things I could pick out of that video, but we all have better things to do with our time. The bottom line is that FPCWV is promoting a message that is callous, misguided, and misleading. Remember, their side is the one pushing for legislation that genuinely harms another group of people — and they want it enshrined in the state constitution. The other side wants laws that allow everyone to make their own decisions about what’s best for their lives. Think about who’s really the attacker here, and who’s really under attack.

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March 1, 2009 · Written by
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Comments

One Response to “Marriage ad from WV”

  1. Leonard Drake Identicon Icon Leonard Drake on April 15th, 2009 10:09 pm

    Allow me to assist with yet another objectional aspect of this video: BLATANT AND OBJECTIONABLE RACISM. Most, if not all, of the families were Caucasian. In the school setting, there were two children who were not White, but they were practically invisible, as they were positioned in the EXTREME REAR of the photoshoot. One child in this classroom was siting diagonally and his face was partially blocked by the two blond WASP-ish, smiling children.

    (As an aside, is this advertisement designed for church members alone, or is this to be broadcast to ALL West Virginians? If it is the latter, remind me to put on my “butch cap” if I should travel through “thems woods.”)

    Clearly, the designers of this commercial had other not-so-subtle ideas: “God’s Design” is not limited to just heterosexual individuals. No, they must be WHITE, heterosexual individuals, of Anglo-Saxon or other European heritage, reside in a stable, conservative, middle-class (minimum) two-parent, two-child (minimum) Judaeo-Christian family unit. Individuals who prescribe to other religious values, who are of other racial, ethnic, socioeconomic or sociocultural backgrounds are unfortunately — according to this advertisement — unwelcome according to “God’s Design.” Does one detect just a SLIGHT HINT of prejudice?

    As for the errors in case law within the commercial, I won’t even go there…

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