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Liberals wrestle with conscience over conservative artists

With the advent of blogs and Twitter and other avenues for personal expression online, it has become ever easier for public figures (and private ones as well) to make known their personal opinions on all manner of subjects unrelated to their cause for fame. What’s interesting is that when some fans find their favorite author/actor/artist/what-have-you espousing ideas they find repugnant they have an existential crisis.

Now, to be sure, this is nothing new for most conservative and/or traditionally religious people. The ranks of the cultural elites are filled with those who espouse all kinds of liberal notions that are the opposite of our own cherished beliefs, even going so far as to express disgust for that to which we hold fast. We’ve become accustomed to that actor in our favorite show/movie or this author of our favorite book giving us pause. And with these celebrities venturing onto the Internet where they can make their opinions even more transparent, this becomes a more common occurrence.

What’s interesting is that liberal fans are now dealing with this problem. I’ve seen this crop up most recently with regard to Orson Scott Card, the author of the sci-fi classic “Ender’s Game” and a devout Mormon who espouses social conservative political views. Card has been a newspaper columnist and commentator for some time, but recently he’s been very vocal about the travesty of courts redefining marriage as well as giving free rein to abortion.

 

Here’s the irony: There is no branch of government with the authority to redefine marriage. Marriage is older than government. Its meaning is universal: It is the permanent or semipermanent bond between a man and a woman, establishing responsibilities between the couple and any children that ensue.

The laws concerning marriage did not create marriage, they merely attempted to solve problems in such areas as inheritance, property, paternity, divorce, adoption and so on.

If the government passed a law declaring that grey was now green, and asphalt was specifically designated as a botanical organism, would that make all our streets into “greenery” and all our parking lots into “parks”?

If a court declared that from now on, “blind” and “sighted” would be synonyms, would that mean that it would be safe for blind people to drive cars?

No matter how sexually attracted a man might be toward other men, or a woman toward other women, and no matter how close the bonds of affection and friendship might be within same-sex couples, there is no act of court or Congress that can make these relationships the same as the coupling between a man and a woman.

This is a permanent fact of nature.

This has garnered the attention of those who support the idea of homosexuals and lesbians being given marriage licenses for unions with others of the same sex and they don’t like Card’s take on it one bit.

So in my usual trek around the non-Catholic blogosphere and non-Catholic podcasts—mostly those related to computing topics—I’ve happened upon earnest discussions of whether the writers or speakers could continue to recommend or read Card’s books in good conscience. I find it both refreshing and somewhat amusing to find the shoe on the other foot and to see the great ideal of Liberal Tolerance once again revealed as the façade it is.

Of course, the main problem such folks have had with Card in this particular instance is that he argues that when a government ceases to be responsive citizens and actively undermines the foundations of society without giving citizens recourse to redress, then they should change that government by whatever means necessary.

If government is going to meddle in this, it had better be to support marriage in general while providing protection for those caught in truly destructive marriages.

Because when government is the enemy of marriage, then the people who are actually creating successful marriages have no choice but to change governments, by whatever means is made possible or necessary.

[…]

What these dictator-judges do not seem to understand is that their authority extends only as far as people choose to obey them.

How long before married people answer the dictators thus: Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down, so it can be replaced with a government that will respect and support marriage, and help me raise my children in a society where they will expect to marry in their turn.

 

“Treason!,” these people respond. That is indeed strong language, but not more than the language used by the Declaration of Independence:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Pretty radical stuff, but then there may indeed come a time when we need to reclaim the ideals on which this country was founded. After all, why should we be immune from the forces of history that assailed all our forbears with the need to defend their God-given rights and freedoms?

In any case, Card’s comments are being taken by those whose beliefs differ from his as a reason to question whether his work stands on its own or is now tainted goods. On the other hand, it makes me even more eager to buy and read Card’s books to show my support for him, even though they’re so good I really don’t need another reason to consume them.

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