Runyan: Why I cannot support redefining marriage
My lone vote against providing marriage benefits to same-sex partners of city employees has caused quite a stir in the capital city. I’d like to explain.
Let me first say that my position on this political issue in no way means that I do not care deeply about the people affected by it; I do care, and will continue to care for them. I also pray that as they read this, they can be as respectful of my worldview as they require others to be of theirs.
There was a time when I believed, like an increasing number in our culture, that what is truth for one person may or may not be truth for another person. I believed that we should essentially let people do whatever makes them happy within their version of truth.
However, my eyes were opened a few years ago to the reality that increasing moral relativism is contributing to the unraveling of the societal foundations we all depend on. Because so many now see all moral issues as being relative to the individual, we are quickly becoming a society where absolute moral truth no longer exists. Nowhere is this more apparent than with human sexuality.
Twenty-five years ago, there was not one country on the planet where same-sex marriage was legal. Today, the push to redefine marriage and sexuality has become the issue of utmost moral urgency in our culture. This movement has led us to redefine gender and the central institution of the family in ways that no previous generation in the history of the world could imagine.
We now face the once-incomprehensible notion that individuals can choose their gender as well as the type of marriage arrangement they desire within their chosen gender. The fruit of this revolution is that absolute moral truths have been exchanged for a relativistic belief system in which nothing can be known with certainty.
City Council’s vote addressed same-sex couples, but the impact of this moral revolution extends far beyond that, because once moral absolutes are removed, anything goes.
Earlier this year, a judge struck down Utah’s anti-polygamy law, opening the way for polygamous and polyamorous marriages.
In Germany, the restraints are even being removed from incest to allow for sexual fulfillment. A recent ruling there declared, “The fundamental right of adult siblings to sexual self-determination is to be weighed more heavily than the abstract idea of protection of the family.”
Women’s colleges are now being forced to accept transgender men and are, ironically, in the position of discriminating against women in favor of men.
On other college campuses, students are being encouraged to choose their “preferred gender pronoun” and to change it as often as they wish. These students may literally choose to be male today, female tomorrow and to have no gender next week.
On Facebook, users now can now choose from more than 50 different gender options.
In a Kentucky high school, a child who was born a boy but now identifies as a girl has been allowed to use the girls’ facilities along with the students who were born female.
I have been elected as one of three at-large, citywide officials to represent all the people of our capital city. The other members of council did their job representing one portion of Columbia. I have chosen to represent the rest.
This story was originally published November 23, 2014 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Runyan: Why I cannot support redefining marriage."