The top U.S. military officer, Marine Gen. Peter Pace caused a furor because of moral claims made during an interview with the Chicago Tribune. The General had the audacity to say:
I would not want it to be our policy that if we were to find out that so-and-so was sleeping with somebody else’s wife, that we would just look the other way, which we do not.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said:
We don’t need a moral judgment from the Chairman of Joint Chiefs.
She is right! Who is he to say that sleeping with someone else’s wife is immoral? What nerve!
Oh wait . . . what’s that? . . . Nancy’s objection was to his other comments? What were those? Oh, here they are:
I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts.
What is so controversial about that? He said it in the context of describing why he supported the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays serving in the military, signed into law in 1993 by then-President Bill Clinton (I wonder if he is related to that Hillary Clinton lady who is on record saying what an awful, awful policy that is?). Doesn’t having a policy against something presuppose that something is wrong with it?
Pelosi and the others quoted actually made two moral judgments in one: That homosexual behavior is moral and that labeling the behavior as immoral is immoral. Like many people, they are shocked when others make moral claims but they can’t go a full paragraph without making moral claims themselves. If we quit pretending that it is immoral to make moral claims we’d be better off. Honestly, I think our society could handle it.
I hope he stands his ground. It refreshing to see leaders push back against the PC police.
One thing you learn fast in the real world about military men: they do not care what the politicians think. They care about keeping this country alive.
Perhaps Ms. Pelosi would do well to learn that.
We ought to be praying for that general.
I disagree with the point of view on this one, sorry
.
I feel that had he stuck to the point about the policy that is fine, but to bring in a morality question is not the purpose behind the “Don’t ask don’t tell” guidelines. The purpose is to maintain unit cohesion, not to condemn or affirm a lifestyle choice.
While I fully understand that many have an anathema about the homosexual lifestyle, to single them out in such a way was unfortunate. Adultery, which in fairness, Gen. Pace did mention, is also against the UCMJ but it is singularly winked at in the armed forces. Having been in the Army I know what I saw while I was deployed, and there would be a lot of soldiers in custody if this was violation was enforced.
The reason it isn’t is because it has no bearing on the soldier’s ability to do his job.
Adultery may be winked at in the army, but a member of my family found out that it is taken seriously in another branch of the service.
Even if the policy were not enforced anywhere, that does not lessen the importance of the General’s position. I think a man in his position without those moral standards would be a very bad thing.
I also like Neil’s point about making moral judgements about moral judgements. Too many people are making moral judgements without basis or thought and that may be worse than no morals at all.
Hi Neil,
The radical gay lobby has turned it’s eye toward a higher recognition than tolerance, which is total acceptance. Rather than the usual go along to get along, I’m ok, you’re ok standard, the next step in normalizing sexual tastes is the downgrading of heterosexuality.
Straight men and women may no longer consider themselves normal unless they also consider homosexuals normal.
When society sanctions immoral behavior, when a majority of people accept deviant behavior as the norm, severely destructive societal damage is done.
When the highest ranking military official in America makes it clear that this behavior is immoral, cause for celebration is in order. Refusing to bend to amoral secular bias encourages similar actions by others, and leave it to a military man to face the issue head on, not with the feigned indignation of so many.
A society without standards is in serious decline, having a bleak future, at best.
Hank
Click here if you want to send an email supporting General Pace. My guess is that there will be the usual gay lobby and MSM calls to punish or fire him.
I’m curious.
If it’s OK for a homosexual guy to shower with the men, is it now OK for a straight guy to shower with the women :>) ?
I just posted on this one too. Guess I am a day behind…lol.
http://totaltransformation.wordpress.com
Leftists don’t see that they make moral judgments. They don’t see tolerance and pro-Islam and whatever else as values that they teach their kids – and want to have the right to do.
Thanks for pointing it out when you see it, Neil.
I have to agree with avoiceofreason. Certainly General Pace has every right as a citizen to his opinions and understanding of morality. However, as a military commander his duty is to serve his country to the best of his ability without politicizing his position. It’s a tough and tenious line, but I feel Pace crossed it. Had Pace said in public that he believes that the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy was ridiculous and he believes that homosexual acts are not immoral, he would have equally crossed the line. There are many gay service men and women who serve their country well and perform their duties to the best of their abilities and Pace is basically saying, to some extent, that they really don’t belong.
Let’s just hope Pace doesn’t end up in the position of the poor guy in this article: http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45879
[...] groups are not very gay anymore — but instead are easily angered. They get angry when General Pace at the Pentagon refers to homosexuality as immoral, and now, they’re angry because Coach [...]
Hi Neil,
I think this homosexual activist movement is really getting out of hand. I just blogged on homosexual groups hating on Coach Dungy because he is scheduled to appear before a pro-family group to receive an award.
We appear to be moving way past tolerance into the “you’d better agree with us” category. It makes me uncomfortable.
Yes, it is well past tolerance. I don’t know a single Christian personally who doesn’t take a live-and-let-live approach to homosexuals. But most of us don’t like it shoved in our faces, either. We don’t want it taught as normal behavior in schools. We don’t want illustrated gay fiction read to 2nd graders. We don’t want third graders to hear of how normal trangenderism is.
We also don’t appreciate being called ridiculous pejoratives like homophobe or hater. It is a classic but cheap ad hominem attack designed to silence our views. That’s why they are so keen on hate crimes protection.
I’ve been clicking on other blogs regarding this topic and keep seeing the figure 65,000 homosexuals currently serving in our military. Where is it coming from? It seems very disproportionate to the overall population. Seriously, who counted and where is this figure coming from?
You realize that the pro-abortion movement made up their figure of tens of thousands of women dying during back alley abortions just to help legalize the barbaric procedure. They’ve admitted to it.
Hi W – I’ve seen that as well but don’t know what the source is. The most official figure I have seen for gay people as a % of the total population is 2.1% (submitted to the Supreme Court a few years ago). All other things being equal, that would imply 3.1m people in the military. Sounds kinda high, but I don’t have a reference point.
You are right about the lies made up by the founders of the pro-abortion movement. I wrote a little on that in Recurring Myths.