David Brooks, "The Next Culture War": Why Should Only Heterosexuals Be Forced to Suffer?

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First, allow me to go on record as stating that I support gay and lesbian marriage. Why should only heterosexuals be forced to suffer? However, in his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "The Next Culture War," David Brooks addresses the issue of gay and lesbian marriage from a different angle. Brooks writes:

"Most Christian commentary has opted for another strategy: fight on. Several contributors to a symposium in the journal First Things about the court’s Obergefell decision last week called the ruling the Roe v. Wade of marriage. It must be resisted and resisted again. Robert P. George, probably the most brilliant social conservative theorist in the country, argued that just as Lincoln persistently rejected the Dred Scott decision, so 'we must reject and resist an egregious act of judicial usurpation.'

These conservatives are enmeshed in a decades-long culture war that has been fought over issues arising from the sexual revolution. Most of the conservative commentators I’ve read over the past few days are resolved to keep fighting that war.

. . . .

I don’t expect social conservatives to change their positions on sex, and of course fights about the definition of marriage are meant as efforts to reweave society. But the sexual revolution will not be undone anytime soon. The more practical struggle is to repair a society rendered atomized, unforgiving and inhospitable. Social conservatives are well equipped to repair this fabric, and to serve as messengers of love, dignity, commitment, communion and grace."

Sorry, David, but I'm not big on proselytizing. Send a horde of social conservatives to Baltimore "to serve as messengers of love, dignity, commitment, communion and grace"? Why do I think this is not going to work? Instead, I think social conservatives should enjoy their love, dignity, commitment, communion and grace within their own homes and communities. If it works for them in these unsettling times, I am confident their values and lifestyles will be discovered and emulated by those outside their communities.