Child's Reaction at Gay Pride Event in Australia
By James Wilson
If a single
event galvanized the movement toward recognizing homosexual marriage it must be
the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard in October 1998. Shepard encountered two men in a Laramie,
Wyoming, bar and left with them. They
later pistol whipped, tortured, and lashed him to a fence. Death came six days later in a hospital; his
murderers serve consecutive life sentences.
His case is the catalyst for anti-hate laws protecting gays; it is the
spiritual catalyst for re-defining marriage.
The narrative is that Shepard was killed by heterosexual rednecks
venting homophobic rage; it says we must guarantee it never happens again. Films, theatrical and book projects have told
the story – the most famous being The Laramie Project. Trouble is, the narrative is a lie.
The torture and
murder of this 21-year-old man was as brutal and criminal as it is portrayed to
be. But Aaron McKinney – principal killer
– was Shepard’s sometime lover. His motive for the crime was to steal some ten
thousand dollars worth of meth-amphetamine from Shepard. McKinney has admitted in interviews that he
fabricated his anti-gay rage defense; he has also admitted the drug theft was
his motivation. Although some law
enforcement people deny Shepard was a drug dealer police investigator Ben
Fritzen declares drugs and money were the motivation for the attack. As horrible as was this crime, it had nothing
whatever to do with Shepard’s sexual orientation, his being a sometime male
prostitute, or any sort of intolerance.
Yet judge after
judge – in defiance of law and constitution – and now some state legislatures –
decide for “tolerance” and “marital equality” in an effort to prevent a
repetition of what never happened in the first place.
Principal
battlegrounds right now are federal courts of Australia and the Sixth Circuit
Court of Appeals in the US.
Some argue the
facts don’t matter. Tolerance and
acceptance – they say – is a good in itself and we should continue our national
march in this direction regardless of its sources. (Never mind the legalized bigotry practiced
against business people who wish to operate their businesses in accordance with
traditional and even Biblical values.
This list lengthens on a daily basis.)
But this logic presupposes the kind of tolerance/acceptance expressed in
authorizing gay marriage is good for all concerned. Reality is it is bad for all concerned.
In every nation
hosting gay marriage long enough for studies to be conducted the gay marriages
are documented to be inherently unstable and short-lived – with noteworthy
exceptions. Homosexual fidelity is
(usually) found to mean returning to the relationship after adultery; authentic
monogamy is rare. Domestic violence occurs
at much higher rates than in the heterosexual community. Worst – in my view, but difficult to document,
-- is the reality that gays imagine they will find peace in marriage but – when
nothing changes – a deeper despair than before.
Their problem is not intolerance.
Heterosexual
unions also suffer. Straight couples
become less likely to marry when marriage definitions are neither stable nor
reality-based. Married couples become
more likely to divorce. Children of
hetero homes, subjected to a drumbeat of politically correct propaganda, are
more likely to become relationally confused and de-stabilized. This is much more prevalent for children in
gay households. Nobody wins.
Do we want to
subject our children to a game of cosmic truth or dare? Of course not; nobody – gay or straight –
wants that. But given the flight from
reality inherent in the debate over marriage – all over the world – and the
outright lies most media report as truth while suppressing the facts of such
pivotal cases as the Matthew Shepard murder, there is little that reason can
accomplish. This can only lead us – I
hope – to contemplate the bankruptcy of our fallen reason against the wisdom of
the King of the universe. He says He
perfects His strength in our weakness.
Let us fall on our faces and beg Him to do just that.
The National Day
of Repentance is October 3-4 – Yom Kippur.
Repentance is neither more nor less than the re-focus of our attention
on God and away from our binding dysfunction.
Today the question of what marriage is – and how committed Christians are
to it– is at critical mass in Australia and the United States – and perhaps
other nations as well. Would all who
honor God on this day pray for the resurrection of authentic marriage in heaven
and earth? Would we re-commit to
practicing it in the grace of the Lord Christ?
That would be a two-pronged act of repentance.
Our God provides
a road to abundant life. Time has come
to be walking it to the exclusion of all others.
James A. Wilson is the author of Living
As Ambassadors of Relationships and The
Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by
e-mailing him at
praynorthstate@charter.net
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