The Christian Right say they want to save, protect and
enhance �traditional marriage.� If they really mean it, here�s something they should
wholeheartedly support in order to help promote understanding and unity in
those �one man, one woman� marriages.
With �Monthly
Man,� males could better understand the female experience. �Monthly Man�
might even change the very nature of patriarchal societies. Who knows, it could
be the inspiration for a new Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
(Isn�t it interesting that the same male-dominated ultra-conservative
�Christian� groups that vociferously opposed the Equal Rights Amendment are the
same groups that avidly supported the Marriage Protection Amendment?)
Perhaps �Monthly Man� would inspire an updating of that
phrase in The Declaration of Independence to read, �All men are created equal
to women . . ."
�Monthly Man� would have the potential to change everything,
if only it were as real as the anti-equality �thinking� of those
ultra-conservative male-dominated �Christian� groups.
Don Wildmon is the founder and chairman of the badly
misnamed American
Family Association (AFA). His son, Tim Wildmon, is the president of AFA.
America�s
New Psychobabble: Denying Reality in the Name of Sensitivity
By Tim Wildmon
June 29, 2006
(AgapePress)
� �Something I am getting tired of in this country is the denial of truth in
the name of sensitivity,� I said to my lovely and talented wife Alison the
other day while reading the paper.
Not surprisingly, neither �Alison� nor her reaction was
mentioned again, but Wildmon did go on to attack Laura Bush for saying the �gay
marriage� issue should not be �used as
a �campaign tool.��
She [Mrs.
Bush] responded: �Well, I don�t think it should be used as a campaign tool,
obviously. But I do think it�s something that people in the United States want
to debate. And it requires a lot of
sensitivity to talk about the issue, a
lot of sensitivity.�
What the
First Lady is saying is, �Don�t make a judgment that two men marrying each
other is morally
wrong because that might make gay people feel bad.� [italics and link added]
Obviously Tim Wildmon would benefit from �Monthly Man,�
especially in light of his final comment: �when you begin to deny common sense and/or reality in the name of
�sensitivity� . . . you lose credibility.� He should know about denying reality
and �losing credibility.� He and the AFA do it all the time. And �sensitivity�
is definitely not part of AFA�s
agenda.
Another patriarch of
the Christian Right, Gary Bauer of American Values, lamented that
�issues such as same sex marriage and abortion . . . come at the very bottom of
the list� of priorities for voters in this election year. Mr. Bauer would
clearly benefit from a dose of �Monthly Man� to enhance his sensitivity for the
physical and emotional well-being � not to mention respect for the personal,
private lives � of his fellow human beings.
But like any psych
medication or therapy, �Monthly Man�s� effect on �sensitivity� would not work
on some people. Following the attacks of 9/11, Rev. Lou Sheldon, chairman and
founder of the Traditional
Values Coalition, argued
against giving aid to the
surviving members of gay and lesbian partnerships, many of whom had children.
Sheldon has also
suggested that gays and lesbians require an exorcism. A ludicrous
idea, but one that may have merit when trying to exorcise the demons that
possess the false prophets of the Christian Right who present themselves as
�loving, caring� people, but whose actions are clearly more in line with the
One whose name etymologically derives from Latin luc-, lux light + -fer -ferous.
Since the �Morning Star� is Venus,
perhaps �Monthly Man� could even help self-proclaimed �pro-family� women who
demonize and work to
exclude same-sex families. Lou Sheldon�s daughter, Andrea Lafferty, was
outraged that more than 50 percent of Fortune 500 companies don�t
discriminate and offer benefits to same-sex partners: �Corporate America has
never been in touch with moral America.�
Mrs. Lafferty, her father, and their organization have never been in touch with morality (�conformity to ideals of right human conduct�)
or the compassion, understanding and sensitivity such contact brings.
Remember
Jerry Falwell�s �Moral Majority� and the appropriate, popular rejoinder:
�they�re neither �moral� nor a �majority��? Maybe Rev. Falwell could benefit
from �Monthly Man.� But then again, perhaps he�s already tried it, once at
least: �How
did Jerry Falwell come to publish his autobiography with the help of a gay
ghostwriter?�