Media Criticism

An intersection of personal reading and casual conversation this weekend led me to think again about the issue of gay marriage. I read an article in this weekend’s New York Times Magazine written by Benoit Denizet-Lewis about the trend toward young gay couples getting hitched that was interesting. The article rings true in my life even among straight couples who rush to get married due to some unseen prime mover. I was speaking with a few friends about upcoming days of silence in local schools and the primitive protests assembled by anti-homosexual students and teachers.

We need to stop letting Christian conservatives and other opponents of gay couples transpose civil unions with the institution of marriage. I would wager that many gay and lesbian couples are interested in the legal rights associated with marriage rather than the pomp and circumstance of church weddings. It would be wrong for state governments and the U.S. Constitution to force religious groups to facilitate gay marriages due to the long-accepted precedent of the separation of church and state. The only reason that gay marriage arises is that conservatives want to play off the fears of God-fearing voters who may not distinguish between the religious and legal aspects of marriage.

The allowance of gay and lesbian unions throughout the United States should be palatable for conservatives for several reasons. The fact that many gays and lesbians have been in faithful relationships for decades should show that homosexual unions have been forged with stronger materials than traditional marriages. The sinking of the Christian right in the United States due to corruption and scandals in the last eight years should force religious leaders to bring in homosexuals to bolster their faithful ranks. Free market lovers and capitalists should salivate over the millions of dollars per year that would be generated by expanding the potential marriages in need of over-priced catering and attire. It is time for groups in favor of civil unions to play these cards to expand rights from Maine to California.

I know I have heard plenty of conservative commentators claim that there is little in the Muslim faith that is moderate. The same conservatives who pick apart the Bible to strike back against homosexuals pick through the Koran to find incidents of violence or militancy. These nay-sayers of religious moderation were part of a majority of press observers who did not notice the letter called “A Common Word Between Us and You” written by 138 Muslim luminaries to people of the Christian faith.

This letter may have been a part of the growing pile of letters, decrees and other documents that do not get covered by the press if not for the efforts of Rita Ferrone. Ferrone wrote an article about the letter in Commonweal which touts itself as a “review of religion, politics and culture” written by lay Catholics. It is interesting that Ferrone would bring “A Common Word” out of obscurity in the recent issue of Commonweal given Pope Benedict XVI’s history of commentary on Islam. I applaud her efforts to highlight the efforts of the letter which include a connection between Christianity, Islam and Judaism as like-minded religions.

I think that a majority of people do not fall anywhere near the radicalism that is attributed to Islam or the Christian faithful. I have never thought as a Catholic that I should go anywhere near an abortion clinic much less attack vulnerable women making a difficult decision. I know there is a 27-year old Muslim writer elsewhere in the world who does not dream about sacrificing his body in a marketplace in a final act for his faith. We both want to write about and live in a better world where the few religious nuts that use eternity, faith and God or Allah as a bludgeon do not hold sway. How can a single letter addressed to Christians including the pope do anything but help out the world? We just need to push media outlets to cover moderation instead of the sizzle of extremism.