The larger question this episode reveals is also at issue in questions of gay marriage: Can religious values be completely divorced from secular values? Abortion advocates urge that opposition to abortion is a sectarian religious value that ought not to be "imposed" on the rest of society. But until quite recently, the abortion views now associated with Catholics, evangelical Protestants and Orthodox Jews were nearly universal in America. All 50 states made abortion a crime.

Those criminal laws were based upon a religious understanding of life. But so are a great many of our laws, such as those concerning euthanasia, incest, prostitution, bigamy and, yes, homosexuality. This society is a part of Western civilization and is thus shot through with Judeo-Christian values. But Democrats are now singling out certain religious beliefs and calling them illegitimate. If you believe that abortion is wrong, you are a sectarian attempting to impose your morality on the rest of us. If you believe that marriage ought to be limited to one man and one woman, you are a religious fanatic.

What of laws against bigamy and incest? Aren't these rooted in religion, as well? Some will object that incest is really a health concern -- but they are being dishonest. The offspring of incestuous relationships will have an increased likelihood of inheriting undesirable traits. But they will also have an increased chance of inheriting desirable traits. Besides, would those who claim that their objections are based only on health feel differently if the incestuous couple (father-daughter, brother-sister) were infertile? The biological argument is not dispositive.

This is not to say that secular arguments are unavailable to oppose gay marriage and abortion. There are many. But if you start down the road of suggesting that objections rooted in religious conviction are somehow illegitimate in our society, you will have undermined most of the laws that make life civilized.

The American Founders believed in a religious polity and a secular state. It is both unworkable and unwise to attempt to decouple them completely.