KEY TERMS
Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive dissonance is the unpleasant psychological tension when people find themselves doing things that do not fit with what they know or with the opinions they hold or with the natural realities they experience. The level of psychological stress increases with the degree of discrepancy between cognitions (pieces of knowledge), and the number of discrepant cognitions. To cope with dissonance, after a decision is made, people will attend to information that conforms to their attitudes and values while ignoring, denying or distorting information that is inconsistent with their beliefs. People alter aspects of the decision alternatives to reduce dissonance, which leads to viewing the chosen alternative as more desirable and the rejected alternative as less desirable. This effect is called the spreading of alternatives and is labeled the “free-choice paradigm.”
Condom Code
The reality that anal and oral sex were both the basis of homosexual intimacy and the root causes of HIV transmission, required a political-technological solution to avoid: AIDS death; the admission of a defunct culture; and the acknowledgement of the “natural” basis for historic anti-sodomy laws. The Condom Code embodies a list of risk reduction practices and the absolute requirement to use a prophylactic at all times. The reality has been a consistent level of AIDS infection within the gay community and the epidemic crisis in Africa and elsewhere. The Condom Code has been an abject failure in underwriting the ideology of “free sex” ethos.
Court Party
The label given to the stakeholders in the Charter revolution - an era of judicial activism aimed at “forging” a new homosexist social consensus through arbitrary legal rulings. The Court Party is an elitist alliance of justices, parliamentarians, homosexual liberation advocacy groups and academics who claim to have higher insight into right and wrong than the democratic majority.
Ecology
Ecology is the science of the interrelationships that tie living things to their environment. Human cultures, from an ecological perspective, are more than just lifestyles. Cultures are adaptive strategies for survival, ways to cope with the obstacles of nature. Science reveals that anal sex is an unnatural ecological hazard, only surmounted by a technological fix.
Factum
A factum is a legal statement of facts by an intervener in a court case. In Marriage Reality, factum refers to The United Church of Canada statement of facts before the Supreme Court concerning the religious correctness of same-sex marriage.
Gnosticism
Developed between 80-250 A.D., Gnosticism takes its name from the Greek word for knowledge (gnosis). Gnostics claimed to possess a special “knowledge” which transcended the orthodox faith of the early Christian Church; a syncretistic blending of Christianity with religious elements drawn from mystery cults and heterodox Judaism, which culminated in the assumption of an unknown god. The libertine Gnostic is taught to acknowledge no moral responsibilities. Salvation from the world and body comes through wisdom. The alien nature of the Gnostic god to the material universe, which it neither created and to which it is the antithesis is subsumed in Darwin’s theory of evolution. The acceptance of evolution in turn has reinforced Gnosticism in modern thought. God sets the universe in motion, but ever since that instant, the deity sits back and does nothing, bound by the unbroken laws of nature - providence and divine intervention are denied.
Heterosexism
Heterosexism is the view that humankind is made up of two purposefully designed sexes - male and female. Like a lock and key, male and female are companion sexes anatomically designed for procreative union. Heterosexism does not imply that all males and females must mate and procreate; however, there is the reality that survival of humankind requires that some do. In most societies marriage has been the privileged sacrament for these men and women, institutionalizing their union and legitimizing their offspring before the state. The family consisting of a father, mother and biologically connected children is seen as model. Blended families by divorce and remarriage and other family variations, although common, are viewed as departures from this ideal.
Homosexism
Homosexism is a new cosmology (worldview) that asserts there is no “meant” relationship between anatomical sex (genitalia), sexuality and gender. The meanings attached to male and female are seen as social constructs, which can be “deconstructed.” Homosexists claim one’s sexuality is a given, not a matter of choice; and therefore, the acting out of one’s sexual attraction is seen as a morally neutral decision. Gay and lesbians claim an innate orientation; transsexuals and gueers claim a fluid orientation; and bisexuals declare alternating and simultaneous sexual attractions. Homosexists deny the possibility of sexual reorientation and negatively label all heterosexuals who challenge the tenets of their worldview as “homophobes.” Homosexuals who criticize the ideology are seen as victims of “internalized homophobia.” Homosexists contend it is the state’s responsibility to develop technological and pharmaceutical solutions to overcome ecological hazards of their lifestyle, rather than constrain their sexual practices within “natural” and “safe” limits. Homosexists assert the inert nature of same-sex intimacy is not appropriate grounds to discriminate in the social institutions of marriage and family. The worldview is wedded to the feminist analysis that claims heterosexuality is the “male-beneficent” organization of women’s labor, a patriarchal form of oppression. Homosexism promotes a “free sex” ideology.
Indifference
State “indifference” can be seen as unmitigated, complete or absolute tolerance in its governance. A state that tolerates everything (and anything) in point-of-fact values nothing, holds nothing dear, and is characterized by abject indifference. For example, a state that is willing to tolerate any societal rate of abortion is indifferent to the act. A state that is willing to open marriage to both homosexuals and heterosexuals is indifferent to: (1) the “unique” meanings each of these segments of society places on the act; and (2) the disproportionality of the tiny minority of homosexuals interested in marriage compared to the vast majority of heterosexuals. A state that is willing to tolerate any family variation is indifferent to traditional heterosexual parenthood in comparison to other substitutes and places no unique importance to motherhood and fatherhood. The homosexual argument for access to marriage is not based on the notion of a model or ideal of heterosexual marital coupling with tolerance of same-sex “union,” but asserts a claim of sameness with indifference to same-sex “marriage.” The state decision to redefine marriage inclusive of homosexual couples signals the end of heterosexism with certain tolerances of homosexuality and its full replacement with the homosexist worldview and complete indifference to homosexuality and the tenets behind homosexism.
Orthodoxy
Orthodoxy, the English equivalent of Greek orthodoxia (from orthos, “right,” and doxa, “opinion”) means right belief, as opposed to heresy or heterodoxy. In the context of Christianity, the term is not Biblical; no secular or Christian writer uses it before the second century, though orthodoxien is used by Aristotle. The word expresses the idea that certain statements accurately embody the revealed truth content of Christianity, and are therefore in their own nature normative for the universal church. This idea is rooted in the New Testament insistence that the Gospel has a specific factual and theological content and that no fellowship exists between those who accept the apostolic standard of Christological teaching and those who deny it.
Tolerance
“Tolerance” has its origin in the Latin “tolerare,” meaning “to endure.” The machinist works within tolerance from design and the doctor speaks of tolerance to pain. The state associates tolerance with rights given or patience shown to opinions and practices that may be less than exemplary or in minority. In 1969, the Canadian Government declared a new level of tolerance towards homosexuals when private sexual acts were decriminalized. By convention “tolerance” requires either an explicit or tacit notion of a normative or ideal model from which the tolerated deviate. Tolerance of homosexuality implies a heterosexist worldview. Indifference to homosexuality requires the replacement of heterosexism with homosexism. Same-sex marriage is not an act of toleration, but a declaration of indifference (sameness) signaling the end of heterosexism and the state’s adoption of a homosexist worldview. The husband and wife, mother and father, and biologically connected offspring making up the traditional family and held up as ideal in a tolerant heterosexist state will no longer be privileged in a homosexist state.
Worldview
A worldview is a set of beliefs about the reality and meaning of life, which acts as a framework for establishing the truth. It is expressed in ethics, cosmology, scientific belief, religion, ecology, philosophy, ideology, voting and governance. Differences in opinion are often rooted in contrasting worldviews. A state and each of its citizens holds a worldview, either tacitly or declared, and it is conceivable to change these beliefs.