Michael Reagan Tells Piers Morgan Churches Needs to Stand Up for Marriage
Michael Reagan, the son of the-late President Ronald Reagan, defended his support for traditional marriage on CNN's "Piers Morgan Live" Wednesday, but also rescinded his crass remark that same-sex marriage might possibly lead to the acceptability of murder.
Morgan was critical of Reagan's March 28 op-ed titled, "It's time for churches to fight back," in which he suggests that if the U.S. Supreme Court rules that same-sex marriage is legal in all 50 states, there will be a dramatic cultural shift in the country.
Reagan wrote that legalizing same-sex marriage "inevitably will lead to teaching our public school kids that gay marriage is a perfectly fine alternative and no different than traditional marriage. There is also a very slippery slope leading to other alternative relationships and the unconstitutionality of any law based on morality. Think about polygamy, bestiality, and perhaps even murder."
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The conservative author and radio host told Morgan he retracts the word murder, because people told him that comment went too far, but he stands behind his message that Christian and Jewish leaders must take a stand and defend traditional marriage en masse in public and on television.
Morgan, who's Catholic, said he understands the religious argument against same-sex marriage, but added that he believes it's the same argument that was used to prohibit interracial marriage. He then noted the 1967 Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia in which the court ruled that states' laws prohibiting interracial marriage were unconstitutional.
In Reagan's opinion, the two issues are not comparable. He said the laws that prohibited interracial marriage were wrong, which is why he stands by God's laws.
"Those were laws made by men, and men are sinners," Reagan said. "Man makes mistakes, and that's why we have laws. God never makes mistakes, and that's why I believe in the laws made by God."
"I think that if you accept the redefinition of marriage, then you're going to have to accept the redefinition all the way down the line," said Reagan, who told Morgan that although he has good friends who are in committed gay relationships, he won't support same-sex marriage.
He added that if the court rules in favor of same-sex marriage, then every conceivable type of marriage will also have to become legal, to which Morgan disagreed.
"For example," Reagan said, "if you define marriage as two people getting married – whether male and male, female and female, then at some point you might have to ask, 'do you agree with polygamy?'"
He continued, "Do you think it's alright to marry more than one person? Do you think it's OK for a bisexual person to marry a male and a female? If you are consistent, Piers, then you will agree to that."
Reagan also defended his comments about bestiality and polygamy, for which he's being attacked, by pointing out that he's merely quoting the questions that judges are posing to those who are fighting for same-sex marriage.
