Ryan T. Anderson’s Truth Overruled is an excellent traditionalist response to the same sex marriage (SSM) issue. While Anderson does an great job explaining why the Court’s recent decision was deplorable, this book is not just a screed against the revisionist view of marriage. It also builds a positive case for the venerable natural law understanding of marriage, and it outlines some positive steps traditionalists can take to build a counter-counter-cultural movement.
Chapter 1: Men, Women and Children: The Truth About Marriage, lays out the basic natural law case for the traditional definition of marriage. As Anderson points out, everyone favors marriage equality. The real issue is the definition of marriage itself. The natural law tradition argues that men and women are different, that their sexual organs are natural ordered toward reproduction, and that the same act of reproduction is also unitive. All of this points to a relationship that is mutual, permanent, exclusive, ordered toward raising children. In short - the traditional view of marriage (the “conjugal view” as Anderson calls it). None of this argumentation is inherently religious, much less Catholic, as many of the trolls who claimed to be reviewing the book have argued. These arguments trace back to Aristotle, who was a pagan (in the best sense of that word!), and are shared by a broad cross-section of thinkers. If you have read Anderson’s previously co-authored work with Girgis and George (What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense) this is very familiar territory.
Chapter 2: The Consequences of Redefining Marriage, argues that once the definition of marriage is cut loose from the moorings of male/female sexual complementarity, marriage is reduced to nothing more than contract law. And since any number of adults can enter contracts for any number of reasons on the basis of consent, there is no principled reason marriage should be limited to TWO consenting adults.
Chapter 3: Judicial Tyranny, analyzes the Obergefell decision. Justice Kennedy’s reliance on substantive due process and sentimentality are embarrassing, and Anderson exposes his decision for its irrationality, and highlights the criticisms leveled in the dissents.
Chapter 4: “Bake Me a Cake, Bigot!” deals with the chilling effect that SSM advocacy has had on the free exercise of religion. As Anderson points out, no supplier of services like wedding cakes or photography has refused to do business with gay people. But what they have refused to do is cater events which would - in their conscience - be tantamount to using their talents to support an event that is against their religious beliefs. No one would expect a Jewish baker to be forced to cater a neo-Nazi rally, though that baker may do business with people who have anti-semitic beliefs.
Chapter 5: Religious Freedom: a Basic Human Right, discusses the natural law basis of religious freedom and the effort to preserve this right with legislative “religious freedom restoration acts”. Anderson discusses the recent hysterical response to the Indiana law in particular.
Chapter 6: Anti-discrimination Law: Why Sexual Orientation Is Not Like Race, discusses the intended and unintended consequences of various sexual orientation and gender identity laws. Anderson also discusses why interracial marriage is not a parallel issue to SSM. Through thousands of years of reflection of marriage, it was commonly understand that marriage was an inherently male/female union, but it was not until Maryland passed anti miscegenation laws in 1661 that any political order defined marriage in racial terms.
Chapter 7: The Victims, turns attention to the social science question of whether children are just as well off in same-sex households as they are raised by biological parents. Anderson weighs the various studies that have been done on this deeply complex issue.
Chapter 8: Building a Movement, outlines the various fronts in which traditionalists need to press the case for marriage: in the arts, in law, in institutional religion, in academia.
Chapter 9: The Long View, offers hope that just as the current popular sentiment in favor of SSM took a long time to materialize, that given enough time traditionalists can win the fight for people’s hearts. This was the one section of the book where Anderson did speak from an explicitly Christian point of view.
This is an excellent work. Anderson’s tone is irenic, and his arguments are earnestly logical. The greatest tribute to the quality of his work is the ridiculous number of one-star reviews by people who have obviously not even read the work. Their ad hominem attacks on Anderson and their failure to engage the substance of the issue will do the traditionalist cause far more good than harm to anyone who might be undecided and impartial. So thank you, trolls!
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Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2015
- Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2015
Top reviews from other countries
- David J. HoustonReviewed in Canada on July 20, 2015
Do not read this book if you break out in hives upon hearing views other than your own cogently defended.
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- Mrs. C. HarrisReviewed in the United Kingdom on August 6, 2015
The troll attack encouraged me to buy and read this book.
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Héctor Guillermo MuñozReviewed in Mexico on April 13, 2018
El libro que desearía haber leído antes
- FatMarwoodReviewed in Australia on November 5, 2016
Logical discussion of an emotionally charged topic
