The logical fallacy.

Please read the following letter to the editor, written by a reader of our local newspaper here in Simi Valley.  This letter appeared in the Ventura County Star last week, in response to the recent passing of Proposition 8 - Prop 8 reinstated the definition of marriage in the state of California as only between a man and a woman.  

Bittersweet election

Thank God we've made the gays realize that their relationships are not worthy of the word "marriage." We had to take away their ability to have their love blessed by their God, whatever that is. It certainly can't be the same as my God. My God tells me that only a man and a woman who believe in him are worthy enough to get married.

We still have more work to do. Atheists and agnostics have no God. My God says that is wrong and we must take away their rights to marry as well.

Hold on, now. Here's an idea! Let's take away marriage rights of Muslims and Jews, too! Eventually, they will all disappear, and we won't have to be concerned with any of them!

While we're waiting for that to happen, let's give them separate bathrooms and water fountains. I certainly don't want to drink after any of those people. This way, we can teach our children that we truly are the superior human beings in this world.

Hmm, maybe we should tattoo numbers on their forearms to identify them. What would Jesus do?

How can we take such a huge step forward to elect Barack Obama and stumble so far backward with Proposition 8? An election has never been so bittersweet.

— Author's name omitted.

There seems to be a glaring tendency for people in our Postmodern American culture to have very strong opinions without doing very much research, or without having worked out the logical problems within their opinion.  

If you notice in the letter above, the author states that Christians who oppose gay marriage do so because homosexuals desiring a marriage union do not worship the same God that Christians do.  He argues that since Christians oppose marriage between gays because they believe not in the God of the Bible, then the logical next step would be to oppose marriage between agnostics and atheists.  Then, says this writer, after successfully eliminating marriage between agnostics and atheists, conservative Christians could seek to eliminate marriage rights for Muslims, Jews, and members of any other non-Christian religion.

All this to say without bringing into the discussion this particular writer's distasteful association of the Christians' opposition of gay marriage with Jim Crow racism and the holocaust.  

Somehow, this writer has been misled as to why exactly fundamentalist Christians oppose legalization of gay marriage.  I would recommend that he do some research to find out why, before writing his next strongly-worded letter to the editor.

Again, those who know me should know that I believe there are even greater issues in life to worry about than the debate over Proposition 8.  Let's not put the cart before the horse, and ignore the problems that run even deeper.  I am not minimalizing the importance of this debate over Proposition 8; but, the issue will always be about the politics of the heart before the politics of anything else.

Only by grace,

Josh.