Instead marriage should be respected in terms parallel to the concept of freedom and unalienable human rights endowed by the Creator. Marriage is thereby recognized as an unalienable societal structure embedded by the Creator into the architecture of creation and into the essence of human nature. People who smash marriage end up smashing themselves as well, as does anyone who defies gravity by jumping off a cliff without a parachute.

Author and MSNBC host S.E. Cupp made news in the run-up to CPAC 2013 by withdrawing as a speaker from the annual conservative confab. Her complaint against CPAC is that it would not allow pro-homosexual “marriage” organizations to sponsor the event.

Cupp identifies herself as a “proponent of gay rights,” and on MSBNC she said “marriage equality” is a “major issue Republicans can no longer seem to avoid.”

“CPAC’s decision to sideline GOProud and Log Cabin Republicans makes me increasingly uncomfortable,” she said. “Until the conference stops shaming some of its most valuable advocates, it’s unfortunately not an event I can take part in.”

Let me start by saying that I respect S.E. Cupp and her willingness to speak out on behalf of what she sees as true. Having said that, it is on behalf of intelligence -– “not allowing our passions to become blind,” as philosopherAlbert Camus put it — that I reject the notion of “marriage equality.”

Admittedly, the phrase “marriage equality” functions as highly effective PR. After all, who wants to stand against marriage? And who could possibly protest against equality? Therefore “marriage equality” seems like a win-win.

Yet, a critical distance allows one to see beyond the PR and to realize that the kind of “equality” promoted in “marriage equality” is alien in theory, and inferior in results, to the genuinely liberating concept of “created equal” we find planted in the Declaration of Independence.

Social Construct? Traditional Value?

Consider the word “marriage.” It has a normative meaning. It refers to the diversity of male and female, one man plus one woman, united in love, service, and commitment for life. Its merit derives not from tradition or from being a “value preference,” a social construct, a belief system, or a crutch of the bourgeoisie.

Instead marriage should be respected in terms parallel to the concept of freedom and unalienable human rights endowed by the Creator. Marriage is thereby recognized as an unalienable societal structure embedded by the Creator into the architecture of creation and into the essence of human nature. People who smash marriage end up smashing themselves as well, as does anyone who defies gravity by jumping off a cliff without a parachute.

Now because the word “marriage” has a definite meaning, it can be distinguished from non-marital arrangements. The logic of “A cannot equal non-A” applies not just to legal tender and its counterfeits but also to marriage and its counterfeits.

For example, a spouse can be one’s best friend. But that does not mean marriage can be reduced to friendship. A million people might march under the civil rights banner of “Friendship Without Limits” or “Friendship Equality,” but reason and clarity of thought would protest the devaluation of marriage caused by elevating counterfeits to the same status.

Again, there is love within marriage, deep sacrificial love. But marriage is more than love. For there are different kinds of love appropriate in different kinds of contexts — your friend, your child, your dog. These distinctions protect children from abuse and incest.

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