A Canadian warns Americans on same-sex ‘marriage’

Tristan Emmanuel is one of Canada’s most vocal opponents of the redefinition of marriage. He heads the Equipping Christians for the Public Square Centre and is the  author of Christophobia. In the interest of full disclosure, he sits on this paper’s editorial advisory board and is a friend of mine. He is also the author of a new book, Warned: Canada’s Revolution Against Faith, Family and Freedom Threatens America, which is both an apologetic for traditional marriage and an explanation of how this foundational institution came to be redefined in Canada.

While the book is written with an American audience in mind, anyone who cares about faith, family and freedom should read Warned.

Emmanuel explains why same-sex “marriage” is more than a mere semantic argument about definitions and delves into the great ignored aspect of this issue: its impact on children. This is a well-worn area for Interim readers, but Emmanuel’s style is inviting and intelligible, so worth well worth reading.

So, too, is the foray into the constitutional shell game, dishonest propagandizing and low politics that resulted in breaking down public resistence to homosexual activity, beginning with Trudeau’s legalization of sodomy and his invitation to judicial activism with the Charter, through to Paul Martin’s redefining marriage. It is a brief, useful history.

The most innovative part of the book, however, is the exploration of the international scope of the homosexualist agenda and the warning to American social conservatives not to ignore what has happened in Canada. In an age of globalization, America is not immune to what happens elsewhere, especially when its neighbour to the north is undergoing a vast social experiment that will affect the family. What happens, Emmanuel wonders, when American homosexual couples get married in Canada and return home? Or Canadian same-sex “couples” move to the U.S.? At least three states’ courts are already exploring the implications of such phenomena, especially considering that Canada, unlike Belgium and the Netherlands, does not have a residency requirement to obtain a marriage licence.

But beyond the immediate legal questions Canada’s SSM regime poses for the United States is the model the successful campaign to obtain redefinition provides for American gay activists. Emmanuel notes how gay activists north of the 49th parallel couched their activism in the language of human rights, used the courts to obtain what legislatures wouldn’t grant them and broke down barriers to acceptance for homosexuality in other areas before redefining marriage.

Most important, and perhaps most persuasively for Americans, is Emmanuel’s location of gay activism within the larger socialist movement that seeks radical societal change, one that opposes free markets and freedom.

Warned is not an uplifting book, but is an important one. It attempts and succeeds to do three things – note the danger of same-sex “marriage” to society, explain how marriage was redefined in Canada, and demonstrate that such change will not remain a Canadian phenomenon. As I blurb on the back of the book, both Americans and Canadians “need to read this book.” Americans because same-sex “marriage” is an issue they are currently dealing with. Canadians to better understand how future radical movements might proceed.