Argumentum ad historum

Sullivan:

Warren's statement contains several simple untruths. The first is that heterosexual marriage between one man and one woman for life has been endorsed by every religion and every culture for five thousand years. This is so obviously untrue it's telling about Warren's own lack of knowledge that he would repeat it. Polygamy has long been a strong contender against that model in many societies and cultures, including plenty of revered and holy figures in the Bible. Moreover, divorce altered the definition of marriage far, far more profoundly than any other change in human history. For good measure, many faiths in America already acknowledge and support gay unions and gay marriages. So Warren was simply wrong on many counts.

Aye aye. And this is a common Christianist talking point espoused by other statist political preachers like Mike Huckabee.

Need we remind them how many other injustices humanity has upheld in pre-modern times?

Forget those 5,000 years, let's just limit ourselves to the 232 of US history and what was overturned:

Racial slavery (Emancipation proclamation, 13th and 15th amendments)

Alpha male suffrage (14th, 19th, 24th, and 26th amendments)

Anti-miscegenation (Loving v. Virginia)

Anti-sodomy laws (Lawrence v. Texas)

All these things used to be the law of the land. And as recently as 1973 the American Psychiatric Association officially listed homosexuality as a mental disorder.

But we advanced, scientifically, philosophically, sociologically. We outgrew our prejudices, gained greater appreciation of our differences and not-so-differences. In short, we developed the modern tolerance of the "other", and are better for it.

Equal rights for gays will not infringe on religious or free speech liberties any more than civil divorce infringes on the Catholic church's asserted right to only recognize the sanctity of first marriages and only ordain male priests.

And legal gay marriages are the next logical step in our collective "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" strive for equality.

In this, Warren and Huckabee are on the same side of history as a Jesse Helms: the wrong one.