Just days after repackaging his personality to identify as a Christian candidate, Howard Dean has offered a tortured theological argument that is likely to impress no one–especially those who take Christianity seriously. This most secular of candidates–at least until the last two weeks–has now decided that his faith influenced his decision as Vermont’s governor to sign the nation’s first “civil union” legislation. As he told the Washington Post, “My view of Christianity … is that the hallmark of being a Christian is to reach out to people who have been left behind. So I think there was a religious aspect to my decision to support civil unions.”

Most commonly, a major shift in the culture occurs over a considerable period of time, with incremental steps building towards fundamental change. Other shifts come with lightening speed, riding the crest of cultural change and building momentum with swift measures.

“The storm that will break over America after but a single vote legalizes gay marriage will surely be a moment of decisive social reckoning.” Stanley Kurtz of National Review magazine wrote those words long before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts handed down its infamous decision declaring any prohibition against same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. As Kurtz predicted, “As soon as even a single state legalizes same-sex marriage, the nation will be plunged into a furious legal, political, and cultural struggle.”

“Western civilization at the present day is passing through a crisis which is essentially different from anything that has been previously experienced.” Christopher Dawson, the late Harvard historian, made that observation as he looked at the sexual revolution in its earliest stages.

Professor Eric B. Rasmusen is not a likely figure of controversy. A professor of business economics at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, Professor Rasmusen’s list of published articles includes fascinating titles like “An Income-Satiation Model of Efficiency Wages,” “The Observed Choice Problem in Estimating the Cost of Policies,” and “Buyer-Option Contracts, Renegotiation, and the Hold-Up Problem.” If those articles are controversial, it would take another economist to know it.

The consecration of Reverend V. Gene Robinson as the Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire will long be remembered in the history of the church as a craven act of moral rebellion and the rejection of Holy Scripture. November 2, 2003 is a day that will live in biblical infamy.

The battle over homosexual marriage has taken a number of interesting turns, and one of the most fascinating of these has landed on the opinion pages of The Wall Street Journal. Commentators Andrew Sullivan and David Frum, both well known to readers of the Journal, presented articles taking opposite sides on the issue of homosexual marriage. Both argued from secular premises–and this presents Christians with an important lesson on the issue of marriage.

In this strange postmodern age, heretics find themselves in a very strange predicament. Various skeptics, revisionists, liberal theorists, and atheists have been undermining the faith for more than a century. By this time, virtually every heresy has been expounded by numerous proponents. The creative heretic of the contemporary age has to come up with some new angle or bizarre new theory to promote.

Back in 1989, a psychologist and an advertising executive set out to redefine the homosexual movement. Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen outlined their plan in After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the ’90s–one of the most controversial books ever to emerge from the homosexual community.

The summer of 2003 began with public attention focused on Iraq and the war on terror. Very quickly, the attention shifted to a very different battle–America’s ongoing culture war. Again, the issue was homosexuality, and the news was plentiful.