I tried to read through Orson Scott Card’s thoughts on same-sex marriage and I couldn’t even get through it. The sheer stupidity… He honestly tries to argue that gays who marry are stealing something from his own marriage. He thinks that loving couples who want to get married are somehow weakening the institution (along with divorce and single parents). It made me feel ill. You know, I loved Ender’s Game and all, but his personal views are really starting to color my opinion of his work – and not in a good way.
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yeuck. he even liked “the passion of the christ”. it all makes sense now…
I also find it a little weird that a Mormon, whose religion still espouses POLYGAMY, is ranting about the sanctity of marriage…
Ahh.. ok, so when my ex husband cheated on me numerous times, which robbed ME of my marital rights- it is wrong for me to have divorced him because now I am robbing THIS moron of what he has? Give me a stinkin break. If someone is in love, that is ALL that should matter. End of rant..lol
It’s interesting that he made references to Lewis Carroll’s characters, because while I was following him for a while (I do believe that strong marriages are important, especially in raising children), I lost him when he dropped through a rabbit hole, and I had no interest in following him through the looking glass of logic.
Hmmm…me thinks he needs the Zartan treatment!
I couldn’t get through it either, but in Mormonism’s defense, the church doesn’t actually still espouse polygamy, those are just freaky splinter groups. (I dated a Mormon in high school, so I know way more about Mormonism than most agnostics.) The real problem with his logic is “marriage must be what I say it is” like marriage has always been defined as it is now, and the definition hasn’t changed with society ever at all.
i just don’t understand how those of the Sanctity Camp can argue out one side of their mouth that marriage is the glue that holds society together and then deny it to a whole group that so desperately wants it out the other. you can’t have it both ways, folks.
BTW, i don’t necessarily think that marriage is societal glue, but i can see how people settling down and acting adult-like as keeping the same job, romantic partner, and address helps to build community makes for a more stable environment.
Another reason to give my “look at the art, not the artist” speech in my classes, Kris. My students ADORE Ender’s Game, and when they ask about Card, I just tell them that he’s got some beliefs I don’t happen to agree with, but he knows how to write a good story. Call me Mr. Diplomacy… 🙂
Great points, everybody. Thanks for the polygamy explanation, Brenda. I guess I’ll have to give the modern church *slightly* more credit… (Although, technically I’m not sure I have a problem with polygamy as long as it’s of the everybody’s-equal variety. I just dislike the whole big-man-with-passel-of-concubines image. But if a couple of concenting adults wanna live together, I say go for it. I can imagine that the legalities are too messy to deal with though.)
Do any of them go on to read the sequels, Max? I though the ones with the piggies were pretty good, but the overt Mormon preaching of the Shadow books really got to me. All the crap about babies and embryos and how it was *imperative* that Bean reproduce, even though he didn’t want to. But Ender’s Game is pretty free from that stuff.
Totally random idea: A Metafilter posted suggested going back and reading Card’s stuff with the assumption in your mind that he’s a closeted and self-hating homosexual. His odd conviction that every gay person was sexually abused as a child… His illogical reasoning that gays would be better off marrying women and having kids and pretending to be straight… And all those books about young boys tussling around in zero gravity and worshipping Ender. Interesting to think about, anyway.
Thanks for the link to a great article. I’d like to know exactly what “rights” homesexuals are being denied? I had the same rights before I was married as I have now… I don’t feel like I gained any “rights” by tying the knot. Probably because marriage is really a PRIVILEGE not a right. Also I agree on the judicial situation. Whatever you believe on this issue… let’s put it to a vote… the way laws are supposed to be made. If the majority of folks feel homosexual marriage is OK, then so be it.
Laws are not supposed to be made in a vote, anonymous. The majority can not be trusted to make laws for the good of minorities. Do you think the South should’ve been able to vote whether they wanted to emancipate the slaves? Of course not. The founding fathers chose to set up a government based on REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY, not referendums.
As for whether marriage gets you any “rights”… Of course it does. Don’t be an idiot. It gets you well over 1000. That’s documented FACT, not bigoted propaganda. Even I, a regular old homosexual, can do lots of stuff now that I married my partner than I could in the previous four years (like, say, migrate with him to the US, something which the US doesn’t allow without that piece of paper).
I don’t even know why I’m feeding an anonymous troll.