Why Not Ask Presidential Candidates to Say When Schoolchildren Should Be Exposed to Stories About Di

[NMMNG]

If anyone wants fresh evidence of just how far the religious right has warped political discourse in this country, consider the first question that Allison King of New England Cable News put to all three leading Democratic candidates for president last Wednesday night:

"Last year some parents of second-graders in Lexington, Massachusetts, were outraged to learn that their children's teacher had read a story about same-sex marriage, about a prince who marries another prince. "Same-sex marriage is legal in Massachusetts but most of you oppose it. Would you be comfortable having this story read to your children as part of their school curriculum?"

<snip>


Here's my answer to that question, or rather to all so-called "Christian" conservatives who denounce gay marriage. In the New Testament, Christ says not one word about gays, but he unequivocally condemns divorce. "What God has joined together," he said, "man must not try to separate. . . . Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against his former wife, and if a woman divorces her husband and marries another man, she is an adulteress" (Mark 2:91-12). So here's what I say to James Dobson and his sanctimonious pals: if you're really Christian conservatives fighting for family values, why aren't you calling for the criminalization of divorce -- and adultery too, while you're at it?

The answer is very simple. You know very well that you'll never succeed in criminalizing divorce because too many "normal" people want the freedom to get out of marriages they don't like, not to mention getting into the beds of people they do. So in order to pose as the heroic defenders of an institution that somehow co-exists -- miraculously! -- with widespread divorce, you demonize gay marriage as the ultimate threat to traditional marriage: a threat that must be stamped out by nothing less than a Constitutional Amendment.

Come now. Though thousands of children suffer every year from the breakup of their parents' marriages, has gay marriage ever hurt a single child, or wrecked a single heterosexual marriage? Have you ever overheard a woman saying to her husband, "Oh my God, Harry, two gay men are moving in next door! This is the end for us! Goodbye!"

...

Full Text: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-heffernan/why-not-ask-presidential-_b_66683.html

[robinlynne]

1. I would simply answer yes, I would be fine with the story.

[progpen]

2. Sometimes Fundies are just plain funny...

and sometimes they are just plain morally twisted monsters.

[NMMNG]

4. Indeed

And they talk about other people having an "agenda". :eyes:

[Fridays Child]

3. Better yet, at what age should children be exposed to stories about war?

[NMMNG]

5. Very good one

Some people think the earlier the better, and make them believe that being a soldier (particularly one who dies in battle) is a wonderful, noble thing--something to aspire to.