30 April 2013. PenzaNews. The US Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage, which is expected before the end of June 2013, will reveal much about what this generation believes to be a moral society. This is the opinion expressed by Patrick Buchanan, American political commentator, in his article “Is America Still a Good Country?” published in foreign media.

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The article says that the US highest court for the first time took up the cases of same-sex marriage at the end of March 2013: in one, the court is asked to rule on California’s Proposition 8, where voters declared marriage to be solely between a man and a woman; in the second, the court is asked to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act, which forbids federal support for same-sex marriages.

“Traditionalist America has always held homosexuality to be unnatural and immoral, ruinous to body and soul alike, and where prevalent – as in Weimar, Germany – the mark of a sick society,” the expert believes.

Though this belief outrages millions, according to the analyst, it is as old as mankind and was held universally in the Christian West until this century.

“Moreover, it is grounded in biblical truth, tradition, natural law and Catholic doctrine,” the author emphasizes.

The article goes on to say that before 1973, the American Psychiatric Association regarded homosexuality as a mental disorder, and most states treated it as a crime.

“The new morality argues thus: For a significant slice of the population, homosexuality is natural and normal. They were born this way. And to deny homosexuals the freedom to engage in consensual sexual relations, or the right to marry, is bigotry as odious as was discrimination against black Americans,” Patrick Buchanan explains the position of same-sex marrige supporters.

Yet, though gospel to many, this belief, from his point of view, has only the most shallow of religious, moral and philosophical roots.

“Needless to say, the traditional morality and the new morality are irreconcilable. But if the new morality – that homosexuality is normal and same-sex marriage morally equal to traditional marriage – is true and valid, Frank Kameny was a prophet and Christianity is indictable for 2 thousand years of ostracism, persecution and suffering imposed on homosexuals,” the expert believes.

He also questions the validity of the statement that moral truth evolves – that, for example, adultery may be immoral for one generation, but not so for the next.

In his opinion, the issue here goes beyond what the Court decides.

“For even should the advocates of same-sex marriage prevail, their victory will not be accepted by believers in the traditional morality, but simply be seen as but another step in America’s descent down a slippery slope to hell. Indeed, for millions of Americans, this society – which has eradicated Christianity from its public institutions and enshrined secularism in its place, which considers abortion a woman’s right, which is blasé about 53 million unborn children destroyed since Roe, which puts homosexual liaisons on the same moral plane as matrimony – is a society that has lost its moral bearings and is rapidly losing its mind,” the political commentator believes.

According to him, today half of America thinks the country some of us grew up in was bigoted, racist, homophobic and sexist, while the other half sees this morally “evolving” nation as a society openly inviting the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah and that is hardly worth preserving.

“If we Americans cannot even agree on what is right and wrong and moral and immoral, how do we stay together in one national family? If one half of the nation sees the other as morally depraved, while the latter sees the former as saturated in bigotry, sexism and homophobia, how do we remain one united nation and one people? A common faith and moral code once held this country together. But if we no longer stand on the same moral ground, after we have made a conscious decision to become the most racially, ethnically, culturally diverse people on earth, what in the world holds us together? The Constitution, the Bill of Rights? How can they, when we bitterly disagree on what they say?” the author of the article wonders.

“By throwing out the old morality and embracing a new morality on abortion and same-sex marriage, America tossed her sheet anchor into the sea. And from the turbulent waters we have entered America and the West may have set sail on a voyage from which there is no return,” Patrick Buchanan concludes.

Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same sex. Same-sex marriage differs from same-sex civil partnership, as well as other forms of same-sex unions that are legally different from marriage and often grant limited rights in comparison to marriage.

Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, and Uruguay allow same-sex couples to marry nationwide. Same-sex marriages are also performed and recognized in some states of Brazil, Mexico and the US.

In the nearest future gay marriage can be legalized in Andorra, France, Germany, Ireland, Colombia, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Taiwan, Finland and France.

Some Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen, Sudan, impose the death penalty for homosexuality.