Iowa a year in
Gay marriage has been legal in Iowa for a year now.
I just read a rather interesting article about the state of the state (clever huh?) a year later. What I found most interesting was this statistic though: While 92% of Iowans say that gay marriage has brought no real change to their lives, 43% would still vote to ban it.
If I read that in the most flattering of lights and assume that the 8% of Iowans who feel that legalizing gay marriage has affected their lives believe it has done so negatively, that still means the other 35% of people who would vote to amend the state Constitution to ban gay marriage would do so despite the fact it doesn't affect them.
Does anyone else find that semi-ridiculous? Admitting that there are no negative consequences to something, that it doesn't affect your life, but that you'd still be willing to amend the document which protects your freedom to deny someone else his? That's a full third of Iowans AFTER a year when the sky didn't fall.
If I'm mis-reading this or my analysis is wrong, let me know. It's kind of late as I write this.
I just read a rather interesting article about the state of the state (clever huh?) a year later. What I found most interesting was this statistic though: While 92% of Iowans say that gay marriage has brought no real change to their lives, 43% would still vote to ban it.
If I read that in the most flattering of lights and assume that the 8% of Iowans who feel that legalizing gay marriage has affected their lives believe it has done so negatively, that still means the other 35% of people who would vote to amend the state Constitution to ban gay marriage would do so despite the fact it doesn't affect them.
Does anyone else find that semi-ridiculous? Admitting that there are no negative consequences to something, that it doesn't affect your life, but that you'd still be willing to amend the document which protects your freedom to deny someone else his? That's a full third of Iowans AFTER a year when the sky didn't fall.
If I'm mis-reading this or my analysis is wrong, let me know. It's kind of late as I write this.
posted by Adam at 7:46 PM
1 Comments:
Yeah, you've got the numbers right.
If I had to play advocate for that 35%, I'd say they must be concerned about the consequences for *other* people, which they (apparently mistakenly) think are bad.
Alternatively, they may reject the entire secular/immanent framework you are assuming, and instead insist that gay marriage should be banned not because of its consequences but because it is offensive to God and the order he has ordained for men and women. An important aspect of their view is that God does not insist on this order because it conduces to our comfort, helps humanity to flourish, etc.; rather, God simple decreed it for reasons beyond our understanding, and as his subjects we are bound by it.
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