Brandon Vogt, author of the recent "10 Best Arguments for SSM -- And Why They're Still Flawed", shares one of his experiences as a recent public defender of marriage:
When I logged into Facebook, I expected a few new comments. But I was surprised when the little red icon showed several on a recent picture I had uploaded. As I read through them, one stopped me cold: “This is the portrait of a hateful America.”
I scrolled back up to the original picture just to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. There weren’t any inadvertent swastikas or vicious scowls. In fact it was just as I remembered it: my wife, our three young children and I eating at Chick-fil-A. We all had beaming smiles, platefuls of chicken and pools of dipping sauce. It epitomized joy, family and fun. So how could this innocent picture represent a hateful America?
Then it hit me. We had snapped the picture on Aug. 1, 2012. About a month earlier, Dan Cathy, president of Chick-fil-A, was asked whether his company supported traditional marriage.
... Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee proposed a Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day on the first day of August. We decided to join in, thus the picture, thus the comment.
... many well-intentioned people who reject same-sex marriage cannot articulate good reasons why. They often respond to same-sex marriage advocates by saying, “It’s simply against God’s plan” or “the Church rejects it.” These arguments, although true and substantial, strike non-religious people as irrelevant.
More than ever Catholics need simple, rational, non-religious reasons to reinforce their arguments against same-sex marriage.
To help, this week’s In Focus (Pages 9-12) is dedicated to these reasons. (OSV)
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