Sometimes I don't know what to think

I was recently listening to NPR in my sensibly progressive town of Seattle, and they're talking about gay marriage. And, there's this guy on the radio from, you know, The Committee to Keep the American Family Firmly Rooted in the Middle Ages, and he's arguing that marriage equity is bad is because it's disastrous for children. He claimed that 40 percent of adoptions in Massachusetts are to same-sex couples, since the advent of real civil unions there. And he opined, as if it were completely obvious, that being raised by two parents of the same gender is "catastrophic" for society, and thus marriage equity is a problem because it will condemn children to "second-class adoptions."

Seriously, people. The hell?

First of all, do they seriously think we're not going to notice that they've oh-so-subtly shifted from arguing that same-sex marriage is bad because it's prohibited by Levitical law, along with mixed-fabric attire and cutting one's hair, to arguing that it's bad for children? You think this little shift from Bible-Thumper to Distinguished Policy Analyst willl just go unnoticed?

And then, what the heck kind of research do they think they have on this question, anyway? I know lots of gay couples with kids - seriously, I can think of, like, a dozen off the top of my head, because they're a TOTALLY NORMAL PART OF LIFE - with adopted kids, birthed kids, you name it. They are, to person, all wonderful and loving parents. Have you ever actually met any of these people, I wanted to ask the man on the radio? And in any case - adoption is an excruciatingly complicated and expensive process. Isn't it possible that adoption by these folks might at a minimum be better than no adoption? And what are you going to do about the gay women who actually give birth, take their children away from them? I mean...the hell?

On Saturday, my husband and I went to a museum exhibit on the Burgess Shale, which preserved an incredible number of fossils from the Cambrian Explosion, when the evolution of multi-celled species went through a phase of massive and diverse growth, the likes of which had never been seen before, nor since. Somewhere amidst all the talk of evolution it was mentioned that the Smithsonian has the largest collection of Burgess Shale fossils, and I actually thought to myself, I can envision an American government that would order this pricessless, amazing, irreplaceable collection destroyed, because it contradicts a literal interpretation of the Biblical creation story. Or, at a minimum, ordered them hidden away, not to be mentioned or displayed or studied.

I thought, there will come a day when there will be an underground railroad for knowledge, and artifacts, for our heritage. There will come a day when there will be an underground railroad for my friends and their children. That's where this country - and perhaps the world - is headed, a bizarre cult that demands literal adherence to stories and rules from thousands of years ago. Stories and rules written for a different way of life, in a time when people posessed less concrete knowledge but a more nuanced understanding of the many ways to find truth in stories of creation, and personal sacrifice, and transcendence.

And when that time comes, the time when the cults take over, and all other views of reason and spirit are forced to go underground, I will have to decide what actions to take each day.

I'm not convinced that bleak vision is our future. But it freaks me out that I could think it so matter-of-factly and calmly, standing there at my local museum on a normal Sunday afternoon.