The Armageddon that wasn’t

Dan Pashman over at Slate ponders the decidedly quiet acceptance of gay marriage as increasing numbers of states move to legalize it. “The lack of outrage is striking,” he writes. “Forget the Armageddon we were promised. There’s hardly even been a press conference.” Why the muted response? Pashman offers a few thoughts: “Evangelicals may be […]

Dan Pashman over at Slate ponders the decidedly quiet acceptance of gay marriage as increasing numbers of states move to legalize it. “The lack of outrage is striking,” he writes. “Forget the Armageddon we were promised. There’s hardly even been a press conference.”

Why the muted response? Pashman offers a few thoughts:

“Evangelicals may be crucial to Republicans in the primaries, but they have never been kingmakers in the general election. General elections are decided by moderates, the same people whose changing attitudes are largely responsible for the quiet acceptance of recent gay-marriage victories. … And while those moderates may be more open to gay marriage now than they were a few years ago, it was never a touchstone issue for them-as evidenced by the fact that it was not a top concern in the 2004 election.”


And this:

“As people start to see that New England hasn’t turned into Sodom and Gomorrah-and as they start to find out that the nice “single” woman in their office isn’t so single-they’ll likely get more comfortable with the whole notion. Clearly, that’s already happening.”

I’d add one fairly important caveat: Evangelicals (like most Christians) are a resurrection people. It’s exactly when things look bleakest on Good Friday that they start planning for Easter Sunday morning. California is a prime example. They are at the strongest when people count them out. So it seems to me the gay-marriage crowd is more than a bit naive to start dancing around the grave, heralding the final demise of the Christian right. These are folks who believe the stone gets rolled away in three days.

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