Is the "right of privacy" really about sex?


A VERY provocative argument
Daniel Henniger certainly thinks so.

But look a little closer. These religious wars are about one thing: sex.

After the 2004 "moral values" presidential election, Pew Research surveyed public attitudes. But the only explicitly identified determinants of moral belief named in their questionnaires are abortion, gay marriage and gay rights (and belief in God).

Roe v. Wade, decided in 1973, ignited a 33-year war over sex, bowdlerized for political discourse as "privacy." Pew collapses all moral life in America down to abortion and gay rights because the political class believes those issues move votes. And the result is that anything else important, like what Messrs. Bonds or Fastow represent, is ignored.

Obviously other forces were loosed the past four decades, but in the public square, morality is merely a matter of "privacy." With nothing but sex on the mind, our politics makes abortion an endless frenzy. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a serious person, feels politically obliged to challenge Supreme Court nominee John Roberts about his Catholicism. If that single issue requires its advocates to render suspect the whole religion that formed John Roberts, then we have a problem.

Our political culture's preoccupation with sexual boundaries has smothered the more important ability of religious or ethical formation to function in the U.S. Currently the most rigorous whole-person moral system resides among evangelical right--at least in terms of keeping one's earthly life in perspective. But because the religious right has "positions" on abortion and homosexuality, politics seeks to undermine its entire function in the life of the nation.

I think he is right on the nose.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Fri - March 17, 2006 at 04:41 PM  Tag


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