Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars has a post about Stephen Bennet’s (of Concerned Women for America, of all things) e-mail condemning Mary Cheney’s and Heather Poe’s new baby. Ed’s post and the following comments are good, thought-provoking reading. My feeling is that Mary Cheney is probably the only good thing ol’ Dick has ever produced.

On the CWA site, Matt Barber outlines a similar viewpoint, but I’m a bit confused. . .it seems he thinks that Mary should have done the right thing, denied her sexuality, and settled down with a good man to raise children. She’s a public figure, after all, so she should be sending out good moral messages, regardless of how miserable they might make her. He supports the idea that the sperm donor should be raising this child and poses the question, “One wonders if Ms. Cheney has ever contemplated what her childhood may have been like if she had been denied her own father. ” Oh, I can think of a few things. In fact, if more people denied Dick Cheney the world would be a remarkably different place.

These Concerned Women and “like-minded men” have a whole site that seems to be devoted to mandating what goes on before, during, and after sex. If you look at their Hot Topics, there is exactly one topic, with a measley two articles, that doesn’t address the evils of non-monogamous, non-marital sex, sex education, birth control and abortion, or various forms of biological research. And for an organization of concerned women, they certainly seem to be opposed to women’s rights in general, judging by their full section of articles opposing CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women).

As with the message that Ed cites, all these other essays and soundbites are simply trying to make it sound that it’s a good thing to support a traditional Christian family with a married mother and father and legitimate children – so much so that discriminating against anyone outside of the mold is not only justifiable, but should be encouraged and even legally required. The writing style suggests that this is so incredibly reasonable that only a crazy or immoral criminal wouldn’t be able to see how clearly it was right. It’s unpleasant stuff. I suppose it’s better than death by stoning, though. A little.