WRONG ON MARRIAGE, RICK

Rick Warren has offended large numbers of Jews,
Muslims, and gays. That's three strikes, and he
should be out as presidential prayer leader. Jews
and Muslims are offended mightily by his claim
that they are barred from heaven unless they ac-
cept Jesus. Many gays are offended by that too,
as well as his leadership in opposing gay marriage.

Rick is willfully and woefully ignorant about mar-
riage and what's it all about, Alfie. He is misin-
formed as well about homosexuality, but I have
already addressed that earlier. He avers that con-
ventional monogamy is a universal norm. That is
factually incorrect, as a 3 min. Google will quickly
show.

Throughout the long sweep of history, polygamy
and concubinage have been far more prevalent than
life-long monogamy (L. L. M.). Muslims of course
allow polygamy, as does the Old Testament, and
most of Africa, originally. Concubinage was preva-
lent in China, and geisha girls in Japan for centuries.
L. L. M. is a fairly recent and hugely minority view
of marriage, as is romantic love as a basis for it. His-
torically, marriage has been more concerned with
property than with propiety.

What we have in the U. S. is serial monogamy. Half
the marriages end in divorce, as do more than half of
the re-marriages. The majority of children growing
up in the U. S. are in single parent households. That's
the reality!

Both Inuits in the far north, and south sea islanders
practiced sexual hospitality for strangers without
much inhibition until the missionaries showed up and
taught their position (L. L. M., that is). In Hinduism
(and Greek mythology) even gods have concubines
and extra-marital affairs. In Europe, prostitution is
legal in many countries, and a hefty share of the cli-
ents are married men. So while L. L. M. may be the
ideal, it certainly is not the norm anywhere on this
planet.

Rev. Warren is certainly entitled to preach his con-
victions without harassment or ridicule. And I mean
him no disrespect here, at all. But he is not only fac-
tually wrong about monogamy, he is morally and
ethically wrong to impose his religious beliefs on civil
law. That's a clear violation of church/state separa-
tion. We can't have religion making our civil laws.
That way is theocracy, and the end of all civil liber-
ties!

Let me hear what you think.

jgoodwin004@centurytel.net