rates of divorce, but this tendency spills over to
other
religious
groups living in their proximity. The apparent paradox—given
their emphasis on “traditional family values”—has puzzled soci-
ologists. What the study found was that evangelicals tend to marry
younger than do other groups, and this is highly correlated with the
rate of divorce. Early marriage often means less educational at-
tainment, reduced income, money troubles, and... there goes the
marriage. The
AJS
article doesn’t offer a morality tale—but that
doesn’t prevent us from doing so. The high divorce rate among
conservative Christians is due to a prudish morality that condemns
premarital sex and encourages early marriage. The dearth of real
sex education, plus the lack of availability of contraception, leads
to elevated levels of teenage pregnancy. Then doctrine steps in to
limit a young woman’s options: abortion is officially off limits,
while single parenthood is frowned upon. Marriage it is, then, but
as a last resort, a way to avoid worse (because “immoral”) op-
tions. The very
insistence
upon marriage is what cheapens it and
leads to divorce. That these are the folks who tend to condemn
nontraditional marriages only adds irony to the paradox.
Another Surprised Father
It has happened again: one of the
most homophobic men in the world has a gay son. This time the
lucky father is Robert Mugabe, dictator-president of Zimbabwe,
who once opined that homosexuals “are worse than pigs.” It was
his third son, Chipape Mugabe, an MBA student at Oxford, who
came out in a radio interview in the UK, offering a thoughtful ap-
praisal of gay rights in his home country. But the question remains,
why
does
every rabid homophobe end up with a gay son (or so it
seems)? Assuming it’s not karma or coincidence, here’s a theory:
Once it was thought that gay boys were the result of a “weak or ab-
sent father”; now we know that typically it’s the gay boy who
doesn’t bond with his father, preferring his mother’s world instead.
At some point the father develops a deep revulsion toward this
non-bonding son who refuses to take after the old man, this
momma’s boy who, with the onset of adolescence, appears almost
as a freak of nature. Nothing is ever said, the closet door remains
shut, but the father internalizes this fear and loathing and converts
it into an article of doctrine and policy, folding it into a broadly au-
thoritarian ideology. And a homophobic monster is born.
Kinky Caps
And now, coming to you fromMobile, it’s the Pranc-
ing Elites! Down main street they sashayed, part of the Christmas
parade in Semmes, Alabama, a town of 2,000 that wasn’t prepared
for the spectacle of a dance
troupe of black drag queens
in (Mrs.) Santa ensembles.
Turns out the booking was
an accident on the part of
the organizing committee,
the Friends of Semmes,
who must have thought it
was the local cheerleading
squad’s annual entry. On-
lookers were reported to be
“outraged and appalled” by
the drag queen spectacle, or
professed to be. Someone had the foresight to videotape the Elites,
and the footage went viral on YouTube. So the townsfolk got their
fifteen minutes; the Prancing Elites ended up booking some new
gigs; and the Friends of Semmes were fired as next year’s parade
organizer. Too much excitement!
CRUCIAL, GORGEOUS,
AND REWARDING READS
MICHELLE TEA
“
A gorgeous book that
evokes quiet country morn-
ings and loud self-examina-
tion
. . . . If you once believed
that you can’t truly ever go
home again,
Prairie Silence
is a book you’ll be eager to
read.”
Publishing with Pride Since 1854
March–April 2014
9
