Author: johncorvino

Polygamy Illogic Strikes Again

First published in Between the Lines on March 23, 2006. In his nationally syndicated column of March 17, Charles Krauthammer uses the HBO series “Big Love” (about a modern-day polygamist family in Utah) as a springboard to telling gay-rights advocates “I told you so.” Krauthammer writes: In an essay 10 years ago, I pointed out… Continue reading Polygamy Illogic Strikes Again

Battling for Our Children

First published in Between the Lines, March 9, 2006 Question: What’s worse than a dozen or so states contemplating gay marriage bans during an election year? Answer: A dozen or so states contemplating gay adoption bans during an election year. Welcome to 2006. At least sixteen states are considering laws or ballot initiatives restricting the… Continue reading Battling for Our Children

Left-Handed Desks and Same-Sex Marriages

First published in Between the Lines on February 26, 2006 I have just completed a week’s worth of same-sex marriage debates with Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family. During the debates, Stanton made an excellent case in favor of traditional heterosexual marriage. I really mean that. What he did not do—what he utterly failed… Continue reading Left-Handed Desks and Same-Sex Marriages

Open Relationships and Double Standards

First published in Between the Lines on February 9, 2006 As I embark upon a week’s worth of same-sex marriage debates with Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family, I am bracing myself for his arguments. (There’s a useful summary of his position here.) In every debate we’ve had, Stanton has brought up Jonathan Yarbrough… Continue reading Open Relationships and Double Standards

Debating the Indefensible?

First published as “Angry Lesbians and Right-Wing Nutcases” in Between the Lines on January 26, 2006 In a few weeks I’ll be doing a “Michigan tour” debating same-sex marriage with Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family. People sometimes ask me whether I ever encounter hostile audience members at these debates (I do). “Which kind… Continue reading Debating the Indefensible?

Kurtz’s Confusions

First published in Between the Lines, January 11, 2006 Stanley Kurtz is at it again. In the cover story for the December 26th Weekly Standard—“Here Come the Brides: Plural Marriage is Waiting in the Wings”—Kurtz cites a recent Dutch “triple wedding” as further evidence for the slippery slope from gay marriage to polygamy. (The Netherlands… Continue reading Kurtz’s Confusions

Same-Sex Marriage: The End of Rights?

First published October 27, 2005, in Between the Lines. During a recent debate in Bar Harbor, Maine, I was confronted with a seemingly novel argument against same-sex marriage. Rev. John Rankin of the Theological Education Institute of Hartford, Connecticut, claimed that same-sex marriage, far from being a civil right, actually undermines the very foundation of… Continue reading Same-Sex Marriage: The End of Rights?

The Church’s Shame

First published September 29, 2005, in Between the Lines Back in the 1980s, I aspired to the Roman Catholic priesthood. After investigating various orders, I eventually gravitated toward the Franciscans, not so much on theological grounds as for having clicked well with the vocation director, “Fr. Larry.” (Or maybe I thought that brown was the… Continue reading The Church’s Shame

In Defense of Pleasure

First published September 15, 2005, in Between the Lines. One of the delights of being a philosophy professor is that I occasionally come across charming texts in the history of ethics. Here’s Mary Warnock in her 1960 classic Ethics Since 1900: Many people…feel strongly that some kinds of behavior, though utterly harmless to other people,… Continue reading In Defense of Pleasure