"Sanctity of Marriage" is one of those catch-all nonsense phrases that "family values" candidates throw around to whip their followers into a frenzy. It literally means nothing, when the people screaming so loudly about it:
1. Hate gay people with a religious zeal that would make an Iranian mullah smile, denying their civil rights and thinking of them as subhuman criminals. Santorum is merely the nastiest in this regard.
2. Are often less than sanctified in their own marital relations. Gingrich, for example, was carrying on an extramarital affair while he was wasting the country's time, energy, and legislative business impeaching the President for having an extramarital affair, something almost all Presidents have probably done, but which Clinton was merely stupid enough to get caught lying about. Gingrich later converted to Catholicism (a brand of traditionalist Catholicism, no less, that mainstream Catholics find repugnant) and was granted an annulment under somewhat suspicious circumstances so that his current (third) marriage would be recognized. (Note that I am not questioning his conversion at all, and I think he is sincere in his faith. I'm very glad he's become Catholic even if he's one of the nutty ones. But that doesn't change the fact that he's gotten special treatment WRT the annulment procedures, and I can't help but wonder if, had he not been a famous and prominent citizen, he would not have been granted one so easily.)
3. Blame the recent decades' decline of traditional marriage on gays, meanwhile Hollywood heterosexuals have been making an utter mockery of marriage for several decades now. The declines in traditional marriage has many causes (no-fault divorce, the sexual revolution, decline in influence of traditional organized religion), none of which has even the most tenuous connection to gays.
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Date: 19/1/12 18:37 (UTC)1. Hate gay people with a religious zeal that would make an Iranian mullah smile, denying their civil rights and thinking of them as subhuman criminals. Santorum is merely the nastiest in this regard.
2. Are often less than sanctified in their own marital relations. Gingrich, for example, was carrying on an extramarital affair while he was wasting the country's time, energy, and legislative business impeaching the President for having an extramarital affair, something almost all Presidents have probably done, but which Clinton was merely stupid enough to get caught lying about. Gingrich later converted to Catholicism (a brand of traditionalist Catholicism, no less, that mainstream Catholics find repugnant) and was granted an annulment under somewhat suspicious circumstances so that his current (third) marriage would be recognized. (Note that I am not questioning his conversion at all, and I think he is sincere in his faith. I'm very glad he's become Catholic even if he's one of the nutty ones. But that doesn't change the fact that he's gotten special treatment WRT the annulment procedures, and I can't help but wonder if, had he not been a famous and prominent citizen, he would not have been granted one so easily.)
3. Blame the recent decades' decline of traditional marriage on gays, meanwhile Hollywood heterosexuals have been making an utter mockery of marriage for several decades now. The declines in traditional marriage has many causes (no-fault divorce, the sexual revolution, decline in influence of traditional organized religion), none of which has even the most tenuous connection to gays.