“In the confrontation between an irrefutable religious standard and a worldly empirical survey, the challenge to California’s prohibition on gay marriage reveals a fissure that runs throughout American history: Are we modern or are we medieval? Do Americans live together in a social contract for our material well-being, or are we following ancient traditions of how to live, because tradition is a better teacher than reason? This issue does not surface often in the United States, but it did most powerfully almost 90 years ago in Scopes vs. the State of Tennessee, the “monkey trial.” And it did so again this week.”
— Linda Hirshman, author and professor of philosophy, on the start of the federal Perry v Schwarzenegger Prop 8 trial, from Gay Marriage’s Great Hope
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