To hear Marco Rubio tell it, the secular recognition of gay marriage in America is the start of a slippery slope that will one day have all of the teachings of Christianity being dubbed hate speech. That's his most recent take on gay marriage anyway, which he outlined in a recent interview with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network.
"If you think about it, we are at the water's edge of the argument that mainstream Christian teaching is hate speech," Rubio said. "Because today we've reached the point in our society where if you do not support same-sex marriage you are labeled a homophobe and a hater."
"So what's the next step after that?" Rubio hypothetically asked himself.
"After they are done going after individuals, the next step is to argue that the teachings of mainstream Christianity, the catechism of the Catholic Church, is hate speech and there's a real and present danger," he concluded.
Rubio does not bother to clarify who "they" is, or how he knows what their secretive plan is to, um, use their power of free speech to dare to talk badly about certain sections of Christianity that view gay marriage in a negative, society-destroying light.
It's a new take on the ol' slippery slope argument. The old one was that same-sex marriage would pave the way to legalized bigamy, incest, and people marrying their dogs and such. This, as evidenced by growing support for same-sex marriage, was not a particularly powerful argument in the long run. Not very many people are petitioning to marry Fido.
Now the new slippery slope is that gay marriage will somehow lead the Christianity being labeled "hate speech" by some people somewhere apparently.
A quick trip down history lane reveals however that Christianity has been used in the past to justify all sorts of things that we view barbaric today. For example, treating black people like property, the oppression of women, wars, stoning people in the town square, etc. Yet, Christianity has somehow managed to survive all of that. To believe that somehow allowing gay marriage is the singular thing that is going to bring down a religion with thousands of years of history is sort of odd.
Have faith in your own faith, Marco. Somehow we think Christianity will find a way to continue to thrive and escape being labeled hate speech.