Culture War

I've pointed out before that if you are unwilling to stand and fight the culture war, then what you will get is a one-way cultural revolution. Jeff Jacoby fires off a salvo against the de-sexing of marriage on the heels of the declaration by Massachusetts courts that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right:

The changes soon began. Massachusetts rolled out a new marriage license shorn of any reference to bride and groom. Couples getting married were now to be officially identified as ''Party A" and ''Party B." The department of public health proposed a similar rewrite of the state's birth certificate, replacing ''mother" and ''father" with ''Parent A" and ''Parent B." To that, Governor Mitt Romney objected, though it is probably only a matter of time until a court orders him to make the change.

Meanwhile, others have gone far beyond Massachusetts in embracing the brave new world of unisex marriage. Last month, lawmakers in Ontario enacted Bill 171, stripping the statute books of all references to gender in connection with marriage. No longer do Ontario's laws use words and phrases like ''husband," ''wife," ''widow," ''widower," or ''persons of the opposite sex." And it is not just family and marriage laws that have been de-sexed. Bill 171 eliminates the traditional language of matrimony from more than 70 provincial statutes, including the Gasoline Tax Act and the Public Libraries Act.

Oh, those Canadians, they are giving Europe a good race on the road to a brave new world. But don't forget about Harvard:

''Women," [Jada] Pinkett Smith told the audience, ''you can have it all -- a loving man, devoted husband, loving children, a fabulous career. They say you gotta choose. Nay, nay, nay. We are a new generation of women. We got to set a new standard of rules around here. You can do whatever it is you want."

That harmless bit of you-go-girl boosters was all it took to arouse the wrath of Harvard's Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, transcended, and Supporters Alliance. It denounced Will Smith's wife for her 'extremely heteronormative" comments, which ''made BGLTSA members feel uncomfortable." The group demanded -- and received -- an apology. And those who brought Pinkett Smith to campus will now undergo reeducation: The Harvard Crimson reports that the Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations is working with the BGLTSA ''to increase sensitivity toward issues of sexuality." Translation: There will be no more talk of loving men or devoted husbands at Harvard. At least not from married women.

And, of course, there's always the things that you will be called when you speak out against any of this. Why, look at what they said about Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney when he spoke out against same-sex marriage:

Romney's offense against the new marital correctness was considerably more serious. In a couple of speeches to Republican groups out of state, he condemned same-sex marriage on the grounds that ''every child has the right to have a mother and a father."

The words were hardly out of his mouth before protesters were at his State House office, blasting him as ''mean-spirited." Editorial writers launched an attack on his ''ignorance" and charged him with ''stooping to pander to the rigid right." In the Berkshire Eagle, one columnist slammed his statement of the obvious -- that every child deserves a mom and a dad -- as ''really disturbing" and the brainless ''fuzzy stuff of 1940s movies." He was accused elsewhere of succumbing to the kind of thinking that once barred blacks from white lunch counters.

So, you are either ready to fight the culture war, which means you are ready to weather the counter-attacks, or you had best get yourself ready for that one-way cultural revolution. Which is it going to be?