It has been almost exactly four years to the day since Barack
Obama attended Pastor Rick Warren’s Saddleback Forum. You may
recall that during this forum, candidate Obama said, “I believe
marriage is the union between a man and a woman.”
Remember the hue and cry that followed from outraged liberals
and progressives?
Well, of course you don’t.
The reason you don’t remember is that there wasn’t any outrage
from the Left concerning Obama’s position on gay marriage. If
anything, the Left loved Obama even more. Ellen DeGeneres didn’t
see fit to question Obama on gay marriage during an October 2008
appearance on her show via satellite. Instead, Ellen grilled
him on such pressing matters of state such as Halloween, George
Clooney, and dancing. Let’s just say that Ellen didn’t give John
McCain the kid glove treatment even though his position on gay
marriage was exactly that of Obama’s. And if not for Vice President
Biden’s loose lips, Obama’s public position on gay marriage in 2012
would have been the same as it was in 2008 and, for that matter,
the same as it was during much of 2012. I submit that if President
Obama still maintained that marriage was between a man and a woman
that he would not lose a single liberal or progressive vote. Did
the Left ever give Dick Cheney props for supporting gay marriage
before his distant cousin President Obama? When push comes to
shove, the Left doesn’t really care about gay marriage all that
much.
This, of course, isn’t to say the Left doesn’t care about gay
marriage at all. The Left certainly cares about gay marriage when
it’s a white, Christian conservative who says marriage is between a
man and a woman. If said white, Christian conservative happens to
own a successful chicken restaurant franchise, then the Left sees
fit to deploy tar and feathers. This tarring and feathering has
taken the form of liberal mayors telling Chick-fil-A not to come to
their town, Chick-fil-As being defaced with graffiti, and
Chick-fil-A employees being berated by customers with an insatiable
appetite for liberal tolerance.
Yet in the midst of all this tarring and feathering of
Chick-fil-A, a campaign in favor of traditional marriage was
launched with little fanfare at the National Press Club last week.
This campaign was launched by the Coalition of African American
Pastors (CAAP). Its president, Reverend William Owens,
stated, “The time has come for a broad-based assault against
the power that be that wants to change our culture to one of men
marrying men and women marrying women.”
If you think about it, Reverend Owens’s remarks aren’t all that
different from those of Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy. Yet you
don’t see liberal mayors telling black churches they aren’t welcome
in their towns for opposing gay marriage. You don’t see black
churches being defaced with graffiti nor do you see supporters of
gay marriage accosting parishioners with phone cameras in tow for
belonging to houses of worship that oppose gay marriage. I mean,
how many same sex couples who kissed in front of a Chick-fil-A
tried to pull the same stunt in front of a church in Compton after
African-Americans voted overwhelmingly in favor of California’s
Proposition 8 in 2008? Or what about kissing in front of a mosque?
The Islamic Society of Boston built a mosque with money from Sheikh
Yusuf Abdullah al-Qardawi and has been inspired by his teachings.
Amongst the Sheikh’s
teachings are that homosexuals should be burned or thrown from
a high place. It could explain why same sex couples wouldn’t be
inclined to public displays of affection in front of a mosque.
As committed as the Left is about gay marriage; it is far more
committed to maintaining appearances and not wanting to be accused
of racism. When it comes down to it, race trumps sexual orientation
(and everything else). This explains why the Left gives a pass to
African-American pastors who oppose same sex marriage. This is why
the Left gave a pass to Barack Obama for opposing gay marriage in
2008 and would have done so again in 2012 if not for his
“evolution.” The Left doesn’t care as much about gay marriage as it
does about re-electing President Obama.
