The American Family Association‘s Bryan Fischer compares U.S. Republican Senator Rob Portman‘s news that he now supports same-sex marriage because he learned his son is gay as something that “stirs our emotions with sympathy for the family, and even fear for the future of his son,” but should not be cause for embracing same-sex marriage, which Fischer calls “the cornerstone institution of Western Civilization.”
“Fear for the future of his son”? Why? How is the future of Senator Portman’s son any different that that of Bryan Fischer’s children, or yours, or your next door neighbor’s — gay or straight?
Claiming that “emotion must not trump the word of God,” Fischer, who is the top spokesperson at the American Family Association — a Southern Poverty Law Center-certified anti-gay hate group — writes:
Public policy should be based on reason, not emotion. If it turned out my son was a bank robber, I would not love my son any less. I might even have great sympathy for the circumstances that drove him to steal. I would come alongside him and help him in any way that was in my power. But I would not change my mind about the morality of bank robbing.
Holding to a biblical view of marriage emphatically does not mean that a father cannot love a gay son. In fact, it is quite clear that Sen. Portman has a deep and abiding love for his son. The revelation about his son’s sexual preference must have been a shock to his system and personally painful. Our prayers for the senator, his wife, his son and their entire family are called for at this time.
And then Fischer tells this ignorant falsehood:
But the reality here is that if two men would like to make a “lifetime commitment to love and care for each other,†no one will stop them. They don’t need to get “married†to be able to do that. Two members of the same sex can hold a “commitment ceremony†if they choose and no one will prevent them from doing so. But they do not have the right to insist that the rest of society call their union a “marriage.â€
Well, actually, they do “have the right to insist that the rest of society call their union a marriage.†Because civil marriage is how members of society tell the rest of society that they have “a lifetime commitment to love and care for each other,†and that the law is obligated to respect and protect that commitment, just as it is in Bryan Fischer’s marriage.
The good news here? Portman’s announcement heralds the impending withering into the void of nothingness, and ultimately, the death of organizations like the American Family Association, and the Family Research Council, and their response to his announcement shows their fear — and understanding of their future.