Religion
Saving �traditional marriage�: The therapeutic next step
By Mel Seesholtz, Ph.D.
Online Journal Contributing Writer


Jul 11, 2006, 00:51

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.