Exclusive: Stephen Baskerville advocates using 'masculine courage' to confront divorce

WND 

Stephen Baskerville

The fight to save marriage, as current being waged, is largely pointless. It simply cannot be won on these terms. If defenders of marriage can let go of their own politically correct fixations and squarely face some harsh but incontrovertible facts, it is still possible to stop the impending destruction of marriage by the courts.

First: Marriage exists to attach the father to the family. It is not a gender-neutral institution. Marriage breakdown produces widespread fatherlessness, not motherlessness. (Motherlessness often follows, but fatherlessness begins the process.) The father is the weakest link in the family chain, and without enforceable marriage bonds, he is easily discarded. This is glaringly obvious: American inner cities, native American reservations, northern England, Parisian banlieues, Africa – all are impoverished, crime-ridden and drug-infested matriarchies. Fatherlessness – not poverty or race – predicts social pathology among the young. Without paternal authority, adolescents run wild, and society descends into chaos.

Once this principle is recognized, same-sex marriage makes no sense. Judge Vaughn Walker’s finding of “fact” in the Proposition 8 case that “Gender no longer forms an essential part of marriage” is rendered preposterous. Same-sex marriage simply mocks true marriage. Homosexual parenting marginalizes children still further from their fathers (and sometimes mothers), who lose their children to homosexuals usually through divorce.

Thus the second unpleasant fact: Homosexuals did not destroy marriage; heterosexuals did. The demand for same-sex marriage is a symptom, not a cause, of marriage deterioration. The major threat is obviously divorce. As Mike McManus of Marriage Savers writes, “Divorce is a far more grievous blow to marriage than today’s challenge by gays.”

Same-sex marriage would not be an issue if marriage had not already been debased by heterosexuals. Though gay activists cite their very desire to marry as evidence that their lifestyle is not inherently promiscuous, they also acknowledge that that desire arises only by the promiscuity permitted in modern marriage. “The world of no-strings heterosexual hookups and 50 percent divorce rates preceded gay marriage,” Andrew Sullivan observes. “All homosexuals are saying … is that, under the current definition, there’s no reason to exclude us. If you want to return straight marriage to the 1950s, go ahead. But until you do, the exclusion of gays is simply an anomaly – and a denial of basic civil equality.” Homosexuals are correct that heterosexuals first devalued marriage, though they then use that to rationalize devaluing it further.

Thus the third undeniable truth: To save marriage divorce must be confronted. It is not a private matter. We cannot wash our hands of it by (so to speak) wagging our fingers at immoral people and cultural decay. A lucrative government machine forcibly imposes divorce upon unwilling and innocent people, who are then evicted from their homes, separated from their children, expropriated of everything they possess and incarcerated without trial. It is the greatest violator of constitutional rights in America today. It generates the social ills that rationalize almost all domestic spending and are bankrupting our economies. And it is promoted ideologically by the same sexual radicals who are now promoting same-sex marriage.

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Stephen Baskerville is professor of government at Patrick Henry College and author of “Taken Into Custody: The War Against Fathers, Marriage, and the Family.” He is writing a book on sexual politics.

Republican senator reverses his opposition to gay marriage after his 21-year-old son comes out

Daily Mail

Katie Davies

A respected Republican senator has announced he is reversing his stance against gay marriage after his 21-year-old son came out to him and his wife.

Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican considered as a running mate by the Romney campaign, said the discovery that his son Will, 21, was gay had given him a 'new perspective' and understanding of why equal opportunities matter.

Will, a junior at Yale University, came out to his politician father and mother, Jane, two years ago, The Plain Dealer reports.

Portman, who backed the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, says since his son's announcement he has been reconsidering his views on homosexuality and same-sex marriage.

He said he had spent some time speaking to his church in Cincinnati and former Vice President Dick Cheney, whose daughter is gay.

Today he wanted to officially and publicly reverse his political position on the issue.

'It allowed me to think of this issue from a new perspective, and that's of a Dad who loves his son a lot and wants him to have the same opportunities that his brother and sister would have -- to have a relationship like Jane and I have had for over 26 years,' Portman told the local paper.

'The overriding message of love and compassion that I take from the Bible, and certainly the Golden Rule, and the fact that I believe we are all created by our maker, that has all influenced me in terms of my change on this issue.'

He added that he believed opening marriage up to homosexual couples 'strengthens the institution' and he realized his son's sexuality 'wasn't a choice'.

He said his son had not exerted any influence on him politically but supported his new position and 'encouraged' him.

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Sandy Rios

If Republicans cave on same sex marriage, they will lose their base and the “party” will be over. Phyllis Schlafly knows this and Republicans would do well to listen to her. Drawing a line in the sand, Schlafly, a member of the 2012 Platform Committee has written a letter to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus with this warning:

“We expect all Republican officials to support the Platform. The endorsement of same-sex marriage is not acceptable…We call on the Republican National Committee to consider passing a resolution, at its next meeting, re-affirming its support of the Platform and of the Defense of Marriage Act, which was overwhelmingly passed by Congress.”

 Former First Lady Laura Bush disagrees, “When couples are committed to each other and love each other, then they ought to have the same sort of rights that everyone has.” Speaking on behalf of Respect for Marriage Coalition, in a commercial advocating gay marriage, she and Vice-President Dick Cheney along with General Colin Powell all agree.

At the same time, an impressive list of 100 Republicans signed a legal brief urging the Supreme Court to overturn California’s Proposition 8, a voter initiative limiting marriage to one man and one woman.

 But according to a recent FOX Poll, 66 % of Republican voters oppose same-sex marriage while Americans in general are evenly split. The pressure is on. The party divided.

So what’s a party out of power to do?

And who is Phyllis Schlafly that Republican celebrities should listen? A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Washington University School of Law, one of the first female students to complete a Masters degree in Political Science at Harvard, her early interest in public policy was nuclear disarmament. But she was thrust into the public eye when radical lesbian feminists, throwing blood on the Capitol steps in Springfield, Illinois, made her mad enough to confront their demands and become a spokesman for millions of American women. The “Equal Rights Amendment” intended to strip women of all gender distinctions from marriage law to wartime combat.

Explaining that “equality” did not mean “sameness,” Phyllis rightly understood the ERA was a precursor to the current confusion on gender differences.

Because of her valiant leadership, it did NOT pass in Illinois, thus preventing it from becoming Federal Law. But the radical feminist view of the world was implemented through the classroom and the media. Protective barriers were broken and bright lines between men and women…even the good distinctions were eradicated.

Phyllis founded Eagle Forum and became a staunch and powerful arm of the Reagan Revolution. She has been a delegate to the Republican Convention every year since 1952 and a major voice on the party platform since 1980.

Exactly…some would say; A voice from the past, NOT the GOP’s future. According to FOX, 60% of voters under the age of 45 favor same sex marriage while 57% of those over 45 oppose it.

For young people especially (and I’m almost talking under age forty here) gay marriage is a fait accompli,” observed former PJ Media CEO Roger Simon.

But while Republican pragmatists hold their finger to the wind, they should hold it up in one of the bluest states in America.

In Illinois, Governor Pat Quinn, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, Attorney General Lisa Madigan and father, Speaker of the House, Michael Madigan, along with Democratic majorities in both houses in Springfield, plus Pat Brady, the Republican Party Chairman, the President of the United States and the entire body of Chicago media are all loudly, aggressively pushing gay-marriage. Gay rights advocates tried to pass legislation during the Lame Duck Session, setting wheels in motion the Friday before Christmas 2012. Family groups, in the midst of their Christmas celebrations unexpectedly fought back.

They formed what proved to be the very effective “Coalition to Protect Children and Marriage,” so that the legislature lost the support to even bring it up for a vote.

The newly elected Illinois Senate passed SB 10 handily, but in preparation for a vote in the House, traditional families descended on the Capitol, nearly 5,000 strong. Catholics, Evangelicals and Orthodox Jews rallied, and expert witnesses were brought to testify. For the first time in most of their lives, legislators heard the other side of the same-sex marriage story from a former lesbian, a professional family expert, and an impassioned black pastor. They heard what they have never heard on television or at the movies or in their public schools for the past twenty years; that same-sex marriage is harmful, especially to children. It robs them of the basic need to have a mother AND a father. Extensive studies show that children raised by same sex parents have more problems with drugs and alcohol and sexual identity.

As legislators listened, minds began to change. What was expected to be an 8-4 slam-dunk in committee became a squeak-by majority of one. The fight in Illinois is not over and if there is a vote, it will be close. But the fact that there IS a fight is the untold story.

Now GOP leader Pat Brady is under fire for his support of same-sex marriage. The catalyst for Schlafly’s letter to Reince Priebus was the Republican Party Chair’s intention to attend a Brady-sponsored luncheon in Illinois. The luncheon was abruptly canceled.

Mrs. Bush and the others should educate themselves on the real costs of homosexual marriage to society. One can only look to Massachusetts to see the devastating effects of gay marriage and the LGBT movement on public schools where children are encouraged to change genders without parental approval or knowledge, and public school girls’ bathrooms are accessible to boys who think they are girls.

If this madness is what Mrs. Bush, Colin Powell, or Dick Cheney want for their grandchildren in the misguided notion of “fairness” then so be it. But when one day, the other side of this sordid story is told, they will be glad the wisdom of Phyllis Schlafly prevailed and not their fickle, feckless leadership in dangerous times.

Editor's Note: The inevitable fate of a nation, or a political party, that would claim an equal “right” to do what is wholly unnatural and morally wrong, but that won’t provide equal protection for the supreme right, the right to live, of its most helpless, innocent posterity, is predictable, but not pretty.

NBC News

Miranda Leitsinger

Supporters of same-sex marriage hope for a boost this week when dozens of high-profile Republicans, many no longer in office, submit their legal argument to the Supreme Court on why gays and lesbians should be allowed to wed, bucking their party's platform in a move that one who had a change of heart on the issue said would “strengthen our nation as a whole.”

More than 80 Republicans have signed the brief to be filed in the case of Proposition 8, a California law banning same-sex marriage, according to the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which is waging the legal battle against the law. The nation’s high court will hear arguments in the case in late March.

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