Horse or Moose?

When my daughter Ellen was 4 or 5, we went to one of those wild animal parks where the animals are free to roam, and the spectators are 'caged' in buses. Coming around a wooded bend in the road, we were brought immediately face-to-face with a huge moose. "That's a moose, Ellen" I dutifully announced as the father/tour guide. "It's a cow" was her casual reply. "No, sweetie, it's a moose; see the antlers, see the big ears? It's a moose." "It's a cow" she said once again, somewhat bored. Try as I might, with all my arguments and grown-up knowledge, I couldn't get her to see the clear truth that the animal whose lips were pressed up against our window was a moose!

What I ran into that day would stick with me forever. Sometimes those who want something so badly are blind to the truth that is right in front of them. The same thing is true of Proposition 8 here in California. Like the moose, marriage is not open to our own definition. It is what it is because it has been historically, theologically, and societally defined as such from the beginning of time. Have there been aberrations? Yes, but there were recognized as aberrations because they deviated from the understood norm; the exceptions proved the rule. "That's marriage: one genetic male, and one genetic female united for life." And now some people have come along, blinded by their ideology, and said "No, that's a cow." They refuse to see what is pressed up against the window in front of them! Why? Because they so badly want to re-orient what is on the other side of the window. They want to radically change society, and theology, and history. They want to obliterate all the distinctions that society and theology and history have granted to marriage as biblically defined so that their desire to rebel against God's created order will be re-packaged as enlightened. But, no matter how loud their protestations, it's still a moose!

Hope this helps,

David