Dear Abby Under Attack For Support Of Gay Marriage

In 2007, "Dear Abby" author Jeanne Phillips publicly -- and controversially -- spoke out in support of gay marriage. Since that time, she has become a target of conservatives. Today, the Washington Times highlights a recent analysis by the right-wing Culture and Media Institute, which concludes that Phillips has repeatedly "rejected traditional morality":

"Abby has flown under the radar for years dispensing radical advice on matters of sexual morality while enjoying a reputation for hard-nosed, common-sense advice," says Robert Knight, director of the institute. "We thought people ought to know there's a pattern here that's consistent throughout her career."

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[mamacat]

Bravo Dear Abby!

BTW, anyone who is the target of the rightwing lunatics knows they must be doing something right.

[jubo]

Here we go again; people playing godlings.

[Harrier]

Not sure why this would mean anything to anyone not involved in the wedding. Not sure what the issue is here are why others are trying to control others-what's it to them or others who do share their religious beliefs. Last I heard people were allowed not to be Christian or worship any way they wanted

[KillTheMessenger]

You heard wrong. Religious freedom is no longer guaranteed in this "Christian Nation". Go get your horse now, you are going on that crusade. Whether you want to or not.

[KillTheMessenger]

How could she. We should send her to Guantanamo like all terrorists. But at least we need to confiscate her passport so she can't talk to Hamas like the terrorist leader Jimmy Carter. ;-)

[MissingAmerica]

A couple of days ago, I was told by a Catholic that it is a moral sin to vote for anyone who is for gay rights or womens' reproductive rights. I told her that this may be a moral sin in religiously narrow men, but certainly not in the eyes of God. Good for Dear Abby for standing up for rights. I recall a time after the Civil Rights Movement and the Gay Rights movement, when we were a tolerant nation, accepting of the rights of individuals. This lasted until religion somehow infiltrated our government. Now, sadly, this country is lagging behind in education and science because a close-minded few are in power and making decisions based on their religious beliefs, rather than what is good for the country and ALL its citizens. It seems to me that's what they do in the Middle East; it's not supposed to be what we do in America.

It is time to clean our political house, starting with impeachment of the current regime.

[KillTheMessenger]

It took the Catholic church roughly 350 years to admit that they were wrong about Galileo. I wouldn't hold my breath that they will accept gays before, let's say, the year 2289.

[Sumocat]

"Abby has flown under the radar for years dispensing radical advice on matters of sexual morality while enjoying a reputation for hard-nosed, common-sense advice," -- Common sense tells me that what two consenting adults do with each other is none of my concern.

[JScott]

And she just goes on dispensing sensible advice in her widely syndicated column and appearing in the mainstream media and new media while conservatives that whine about it have to do it in their own media publications (aka self published ones) and dispense it on televison on infomercials (they pay for air time) and with televangelists usually late at night.

And she can just smile thinkin hey I AM more popular than you whiners.

[tsloan]

Me thinks The Culture and Media Institute is perhaps motivated by its own latent homosexuality

[nellie]

Hang tough, Abby. Civil rights are for everyone. It's about time conservatives stopped trying to dole out civil rights according to their own phobias.

[wagadog]

Dear Abby, Dear Abby, we have no complaint
we is what we is, and we ain't what we ain't
you listened to us and you listened up good
so we can get married, 'stead of knockin' on wood
signed,
teh gay

[coolmaiden]

Look what rag this is printed in! The Washington Times is hardly a bastion of sanity, let alone decent reporting. This is the same publication that defended the Confederacy and slavery. It is also owned by the Reverend Sun-Myong Moon. Its readers were offended when the paper decided to use the word "gay" instead of "homosexual." Obviously, pure evil.

[Davwbaird]

The more the evil right wing religious fundies expose themselves the worse they look to those who don't give a damn about them and of course to those of us who give a damn about them. This will come to do them in. Prod them, make them angry, let them talk put they on all the MSM channels, blow the show.

[CoulterIsASuccubus]

I hope Ted Haggard, Paul Crouch, Mark Foley, Larry Craig, Ken Mehlman, Jeff Gannon, David Dreier and Karl Rove all condemn her soon.

[loki]

You go Abby 2. Dont back down to those religious nut jobs. While their priest are banging little boys, they scream and yell about Gay marriage because they do as they are told. The blind leading the blind.

[racetoinfinity]

so, she's more evolved that the Christian fundies? That's a GOOD thing...!!

[whizkid]

This isn't John Prine's "Dear Abby."
But the feature has always provided common sense via contemporary mores.
If Abby is cool with something its accepted behavior.

[pkafin]

"under the radar for years"

Their idiocy truly knows no end. The original Dear Abby is dead. This woman is not the same one who has given the advice to which they are referring.

Oh well, as Steven Colbert has taught us "It a well known fact that the truth has a liberal bias".

[MsLiz]

The original Abby is not dead, but retired when she began suffering the effects of old age and turned the column over to her daughter. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dear_Abby

[leavesofgrass]

Another paper tiger....let's forget all the other issues that matter and affect each and every one of us directly every day:
neglect of the environment, gas prices (!!!!), no universal health insurance, the ongoing invasion of Iraq, crappy economy, loss of jobs, on and on and on....

Anyone who falls for this as an "issue" is a moron....good for her for speaking up in support of it.

[lisakaz2]

Abigail van Buren probably said the same thing. These guys just caught on now? They gonna dig her up as well as burn Ms. Phillips at the stake?

[mikeboy31903]

Why would she not support gay marriage? She's an intelligent, rational human being. It only makes sense to support equal rights for all.

[JaseAllen]

Let's face it. Those who lead the "moral majority" have very few morals (or shame) of their own. The notion of morality (as well as terrorism) is today what fear of communism was in the 1920s and 1950: a device used to keep certain people in power and the voting public under the thumb of a particular political party.

[Marlyn]

Robert Knight says "We thought people ought to know there's a pattern here that's consistent throughout her career."

Dear Robert Knight, We know about "the pattern" and we enjoy it. That is why she is so popular.

[SouthJerseySteve]

Let's not forget the part where you cannot wear mixed linens. That's why ultra fundamentalists all look like the Amish.

[helonias]

When will they attack the adulterer pols?

Luke 16:18
Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. (So Says Jesus)

Lev 20:10
And the man that committeth adultery with [another] man's wife, [even he] that committeth adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

[felixtkatz]

if they go after adulterers they'd have to go after McCain wouldn't they?

[Spazzers]

While I do hold many conservative values I find the whole gay marriage argument stupid. The largest threat to the institute of marriage is not the gay movement. It is the ever increasing divorce rate.

As far as traditional morality goes, if you want to refer back to the Old Testament Bible, which is where the verse condemning homosexuality comes from, then you have to take the entire Old Testament Bible. Don't eat pork or bacon because it is explicitly forbidden in the Old Testament. The same goes for shrimp and lobster.

I wonder how much pork and lobster Pat Robertson has eaten in his lifetime. That's the true definition of a hypocrit.

[situationcritical]

It comes not from the Old Testament. It comes from Paul in the New Testament, and he was not even a contemporary of Jesus. Paul, author of Leviticus, only had dreams of talking to Jesus. And even in those dreams Paul admits to persecuting Christians.

[Spazzers]

Leviticus is in the Old Testament. 18:22 "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; such a thing is an abomination."

That is the verse used most by the religious right to condemn homosexuality.

Many religious scholars harken back to the Old Testament because it also has a number of verses describing what marriage is, a man and a woman.

[Davwbaird]

I don't men don't have vagina's.

[MissingAmerica]

These were written in tribal times when it was necessary to procreate, as the size of the tribe determined its power. They were not the words of God; they were man's interpretation of what he believed could, and should, be the Word of God. Those words were written over 2,000 years ago.

We are supposed to be an enlightened society. I hate to think that in 2,000 years we have learned no more than the radical religions of those who live in the sand and kill those who believe differently.

It is time to return to the sanity that used to be the rule in this nation.

[helonias]

What about adultery

Its a 10 commandment no no, they say nothing about being gay though

Matthew 5:17 he said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them."

"For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:18-19

[readreza]

More to the point: religious arguments have no place in debate in our secular government.

The founding fathers (NOT christians) were serious about the separation of church and state because they were fully aware of the damage christianists or other fundamentalists could do to our democracy. We witness christianist damage to America every single day - while they whine about being persecuted. Only if you can define persecution as the inability to force everyone to believe exactly what you believe and bahave exactly as you wish is any christian persecuted in America. Therefore, no christian is persecuted in America. Oh, except the homosexual christian. That person must pretend to be either one or the other...

[rmetz74]

Republicans lecturing others on "sexual morality"...

You just have to laugh.

*eyeroll*