What's he on about now?

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   Wednesday, June 14, 2006

   POINT, COUNTERPOINT

It's nice to see that intelligent adults can still have a reasonable discussion of issues -- in this case, two Mormon professors discussing gay marriage. Jeffrey Nielsen, a philosophy teacher at Brigham Young University, said:

"Truly, God would be unjust if He were the creator of a biological process that produced such uncommon, yet perfectly natural results, and then condemned the innocent person to a life of guilt, while denying him or her the ordinary privileges and fulfillment of the deep longing in all of us for family and a committed, loving relationship.

Even if the scientific evidence does not yet establish this beyond reasonable doubt, it seems that virtuous moderation and loving kindness require us to exercise caution before making constitutionally binding discrimination against a whole class of people based only on fear and superstition. In fact, when we examine the statements opposing gay marriage, we find few reasonable arguments.
...
How could the union of two committed and loving people negatively affect my marriage? I believe that quite the contrary is true; namely, legalizing gay marriage reinforces the importance of committed relationships and would strengthen the institution of marriage."

Thank you, Jeremy, some good points there. Now let's hear the opposing arguments from Daniel Graham, Chairman of Brigham Young University's Department of Philosophy:

"In accordance with the order of the church, we do not consider it our responsibility to correct, contradict or dismiss official pronouncements of the church. Since you have chosen to contradict and oppose the church in an area of great concern to church leaders, and to do so in a public forum, we will not rehire you after the current term is over."

There. Argument settled. Advantage: Graham!