Thursday, June 01, 2006

New Right Wing DVD Gets a Bad Review

In the issue of Milwaukee’s Shepherd-Express that came out yesterday (scroll down to story), there is a movie review of a right wing video that is making the rounds. Don’t look in Blockbuster for the DVD entitled, “The Battle for Marriage in Wisconsin.” You can find it in your nearby gay-unfriendly right wing church.

It appears that the idea is to send this DVD to as many churches in Wisconsin as possible and scare as many of them as possible. Lisa Kaiser at the Shepherd officially gives the movie a “thumbs down” as she proceeds to debunk it point by point.

Although there are 12 points in dispute in the story, I will list my favorite three below:

Voice Over: “The institution of marriage is God’s creation, designed for mankind’s good and God’s glory. Marriage and the family are not the creation of the state or even the church. Therefore marriage or the family cannot be redefined by the government or the church.”

Fact: That must be news to our lawmakers because marriage is in fact defined by state law. Statute 765.01 states “marriage, so far as its validity at law is concerned, is a civil contract ,to which the contracting is essential, and which creates the legal status of husband and wife.”

Voice Over: “The battle for marriage in Wisconsin is the defining social and moral issue of our day.”

Fact: Really? Legislators say that their constituents’ main concerns are health care, jobs, and education.

Julaine Appling: “Make no mistake. Our Constitution will be amended. The question is, by whom? A few renegade judges at the insistence of a very loud but small group of people or by our elected representatives, by we the people?”

Fact: Actually, judges can’t amend our Constitution. Amendments must be passed by two consecutive sessions of the state Legislature, and then it is put on a ballot. In this case, the “small group of people” who is insisting on putting this on the November ballot is the Republican leadership, afraid of losing big-time in the election and hoping to win only by appealing to the base instincts of voters.


Thanks to Lisa Kaiser and the folks at the Shepherd-Express for not only listening to this trash but for so thoroughly debunking it for us. I don’t think I would have the stomach to do it myself.

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