Dear Fred,
Thanks for your email.
In general, I am suspicious of "experts" - especially in the social sciences.
That said, the nature of scientific pursuit is tentative, probabilistic and open to contradiction.
The intrinsic inability of Science to "speak" with absolute certainty fuels the "science denial" of those who insist on absolute certitude. Lest we forget, the atomic bomb was not built on a foundation of incontrovertible fact but on The Theory Of Relativity. See "The Danger of Science Denial" - http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_specter_the_danger_of_science_denial.html
The best scientists -- often, but not exclusively, working in the "hard sciences" -- try to disprove recent scientific findings, including their own!
As much as I admire the work of "manual laborers," your barber cannot conceive any deliberate attempt to disprove himself.
Instead, manual laborers are persuaded Truth is a "shouting match" won by the party that yells (or, in religious terms, "proclaims") most clamorously.
But tell me...
What does your barber think?
Personally, I am astounded by the level of latino support for gay marriage.
"According to an ABC News exit poll from election day last November, nearly six-in-ten Latinos—59 percent—said that same-sex marriages should be recognized in their home states. That was 11 points higher than the general population at the time. A March 2013 study, also by ABC News, revealed that a record 58 percent of all Americans supported gay marriage. In 2004, support across the U.S. was just 32 percent." http://www.voxxi.com/latinos-gay-marriage-abortion-government/
The following article about gay marriage in California reports that latino voters were more likely than any other group surveyed to approve if their state legalized gay marriage. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/01/california-latinos-favor-_n_2789185.html
Imagine.
The largest Catholic demographic in the United States is the very group spearheading national support for gay marriage.
Yes, the church can prolong its official stance against gay marriage until Africa becomes educated.
Then, Rome has nowhere to turn.
It may be that the church will prove stronger, truer and more virtuous if it downsizes around a small core of "true believers." (Speaking of "true believers..." My high school mentor, a British Xerox executive named Phil Sturman, introduced me to Eric Hoffer, an autodidact San Francisco stevedore, best known for two slender volumes, "The True Believer" and "The Ordeal of Change." Although I often disagree with Hoffer, his many insights are not only unique but uniquely profound. http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/9843.Eric_Hoffer /// http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_True_Believer Notably, Hoffer is considered a conservative.)
My own belief is that a deliberately down-sized church would be more pharisaic, which is to say more punctiliously doctrinaire than the current iteration but more inert on issues of peace and justice - especially issues of economic justice and even more so on issues that can only be remedied/resolved by the ministrations of social and systemic justice.
I believe the Church is as wrong about gay marriage as it was (whether overtly or covertly) about "Jews as Christ killers" or Paul's complacency with slavery and his paradigmatic support for "keeping women in their place" while Yeshua went out to meet and empower womem in every possible place, many of them scandalous.
Gay marriage is an unfolding revelation which the ancient Jews -- mostly illiterate peasants -- could not even conceive much less understand. With perceived menace on every side, the Jews of Jesus' time were dedicated to populating their tiny, threatened tribe, a tribe whose survival could be best assured by full-throttle procreation, including procreation with female slaves seized from other tribes.
Again, I recommend "For The Bible Says It's So," a 2007 documentary about homosexuality and Christianity. It is freely available online - http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/for-the-bible-tells-me-so/ (I also recommend "God Hates Fags. What Role Does Christianity Play?" http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/03/god-hates-fags-what-role-do-christians.html)
Pax
Alan
Which ones are the Good Christians?
I would ask my barber about raising children before I would ask an "expert."Experts? Fucking experts?Alan, The headline in the LATimes read "experts defend gay parenting"--
Fred Owens
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