Late last week, after the Supreme Court of the United States declared without any Constitutional basis that the Constitution mandates same-sex marriages be state legitimized across the nation, a disquieting level of triumphalism broke out from coast to coast. The president shined lights representing the gay pride rainbow flag on the White House -- a gross boot-on-the-throat display from an anti-religious leader. Corporations, undoubtedly fearful of the consequences of ending up on the wrong side of the riotous left, began tweeting out rainbow symbols. News outlets similarly embraced the rainbow symbol, as though it were uncontroversial to do so; BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, and Mashable all turned their logos rainbow, with BuzzFeed's Ben Smith explaining, "We firmly believe that for a number of issues, including civil rights, women's rights, anti-racism, and LGBT equality, there are not two sides."
Let's move beyond the romantically idiotic language of Justice Kennedy's decision. The notion that gay rights advocates and their allies, who have spent decades suggesting that the institution of marriage represents patriarchal oppression, love and respect marriage so much that they wish to join in its binds, is inane. And the idea that the gay rights movement desperately seeks the tax assistance available to male-female married couples was made false long ago with the promises of civil unions.
No, the gay rights movement and the broader American left celebrated the same-sex marriage decision in wild fashion because the decision established two fundamental notions: First, that government has replaced God in the moral pantheon of the United States; second, that the new god-government has the power to root out and destroy any God-based institutions, destroying the social capital and fabric that holds together the nation.
The emotion that greeted Justice Kennedy's decision reeks of religious fervor. In ancient Israel, the Jews cheered ecstatically each Yom Kippur when the High Priest emerged from the Holy of Holies; that signified God's acceptance of the repentance of the people. This weekend's Dionysian displays mirrored that sort of delirious jubilation with Justice Kennedy as a stand-in for God: He declared the fundamental morality of homosexuality, not merely its legality. Kennedy went so far as to declare that the government could confer "dignity" on relationships. Now, the notion that the gay rights movement seeks the "dignity" of marriage is similarly ridiculous -- movements that seek "dignity" do not hold parades featuring the Seattle Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and a bevy of chaps in assless chaps. But they do seek the "dignity" of being told by a higher authority that their actions are right, just and good.
With God safely shunted to the side in favor of Justice Kennedy, the next step in the gay rights movement will be the smashing of idolators -- namely, those who cling to their religion and church in spite of Justice Kennedy's New New Testament. Leftists have already moved to ban nonprofit status for religious institutions that refuse to acknowledge same-sex marriages; leftists have already sued into oblivion religious business owners who refuse to participate in same-sex weddings. It will not stop there. Religious schools will be targeted. Then, so will homeschooling programs. The secular religion of the left has been set free to pursue its own crusade against the infidel.
Religious institutions were the key social glue binding Americans together; we trust one another because we share values, beliefs and social institutions with them. With all three of those elements being memory-holed by the government in favor of self-expression, social capital will disintegrate; our trust in each other will fall apart, and government will fill the gap. With this week's judicial tyranny, leftists move one step closer to their ultimate goal, as expressed at the 2012 Democratic National Convention: "Government is the only thing we all belong to." And that will be an ugly America indeed.
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