Abusing a Voice of Reason
When Senator Rick Santorum explained to an interviewer the logic of the argument against Texas’ anti-sodomy law—later to be abolished by the Supreme Court in one of its dimmer decisions—the usual voices rose in wrath to strike him down. The editors of the New York Times declared: “Hear ye, hear ye: Senator Rick Santorum feels obliged to offer gratuitous guidance to the Supreme Court in the form of an ad hoc, highly unlearned ruling that equates homosexuality with bigamy, polygamy, incest and adultery.” Others were ruder. The White House and the Republican leadership avoided supporting him, with answers of the “Hey, Rick is a good guy” and “This is certainly a difficult subject” sort.
But the senator had made perfect sense, and the reaction he endured tells us much about the difficulty of speaking reasonably about homosexuality in the public square.
All He Said
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David Mills has been editor of Touchstone and executive editor of First Things.
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