Why can't you think for yourself on this issue?

Lets take a step back from the heat of the debate and poke at the underlying issues again. Why are conservatives (not just Fundies) so overwrought on the gay marriage issue? Fear. Of what? Simply this: change. Why fear change? Because change tends to make things worse. Never mind that life at the start of the 21st century is a whole lot better in countless ways than life even in the middle of the 20th century. Back to: why that fear? The assumption that the primary thing holding civilization together is received custom. Without those customs humans will behave like beasts or worse. Alas, it is difficult to sweep away that assumption -- and paranoia -- with reasoning and examples because it is the result of temperament, in which the believer finds certain arguments more compelling than others.

Take another step back for analysis of why the driving force is fear. Andrew Sullivan, a gay writer for The Atlantic comments on a discussion with Damon Linker and Rob Dreher (affiliations unknown).

As his first reason for banning gay marriage Dreher claims bible inerrancy. Linker and Sullivan don't buy it because most church people are able to think for themselves to decide that slavery (among other things), though permissible in the bible, is wrong. Even if they feel divorce is wrong, they don't force their views on the rest of society. So what is there about homosexuality that makes it a unique threat? It can only be fear.

The second reason (also based on fear) that Dreher gives is that if homosexuality is legitimized (rather than tolerated), it will complete the 1960s Sexual Revolution and sweep away all that remains of sexual ethics. Desire will be the sole arbiter of defining sexual truth.

Wait a minute, Sullivan responds, gays are asking to get married. Wasn't the Sexual Revolution about not getting married? Gay life has changed a lot in the last few decades and Dreher seems to not notice. The shift has been from gay sex to gay life with dignity and responsibility. Gay love can be as organic, natural, and completing as straight love. Reducing all that to sexual acts is a form of bigotry. Sullivan's full description is beautifully written.

The fear is exaggerated, which is the definition of homophobia. Be not afraid.