"I'm Going to Play Ping Pong Now..."

Rod Dreher on the federal judicial ruling overthrowing traditional marriage in Pennsylvania:

I haven’t commented on this recent spate of rulings, because what’s the point? We all know the fix is in. We all know where this is going. What ticked me off about this particular ruling is the repulsive, self-congratulatory moral triumphalism of Judge Jones. Read his entire ruling. The cliched prose almost approaches kitsch at times. For example:

As a group, they represent the great diversity of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. They hail from across the state, making their homes in Allegheny,Dauphin, Centre, Northampton, Delaware, Chester, and Philadelphia Counties. They come from all walks of life; they include a nurse, state employees, lawyers,doctors, an artist, a newspaper delivery person, a corporate executive, a dogtrainer, university professors, and a stay-at-home parent.

Look, I’m not questioning Judge Jones’s legal reasoning. I’m not qualified to do so, and in any case, it seems to me that the Supreme Court’s Lawrence and Windsorrulings made these rulings inevitable. What ticks me off is the second-rate crusading ardor with which Judge Jones makes his ruling. That phrase “ash heap of history” used in this context is outrageous. Know where it first came from? Trotsky, denouncing moderate revolutionaries, and consigning them to “the dustbin of history.” Ronald Reagan memorably used it to describe the fate of Marxism-Leninism.

Does Judge Jones really think that the sexual complementarity of marriage, which has been the basis of marriage in all places and in all times, until only two decades ago, is fit for history’s garbage dump? Does he really think that the Christian ideal of marriage, whose time may have passed but which is still strongly believed by many Americans, is so odious that it, and those who believe in it, must be spoken of so contemptuously in a ruling? Yes, he does. This kind of radicalism is familiar, but it must be said that Robespierre was a much better writer.

Do read the whole thing.

Tough times are on the near horizon for the traditionally minded.

Carry on anyway.

I'm going to play ping pong now...