Wedded to the original

We’re at war. And I’m not talking about the war against terrorism, with its dreadful daily reminders.

I’m talking about the civil — and increasingly uncivil — culture war now raging across America, from Boston Common to San Francisco Bay.

There is no neutrality in this war, no Switzerland here, no conscientious objectors; you are either for traditional morality, or you stand with those who want to change the moral guidelines and spiritual markers that have guided civilized behavior since the time of Moses. It’s that simple.

If we win, we may be able to rebuild the institution of marriage as the sacred bedrock of American society. If they win, we will have moral anarchy.

Consider San Francisco, where the mayor — who swore to uphold the law — has invited “same-sex” couples to marry at City Hall (illegal license and all) in defiance of California state law and the express wishes of more than two-thirds of California voters, who have called for legislation to explicitly deny marriage “benefits” to same-sex couples.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, to his credit, has called on the mayor to cease and desist, but the mayor vows to soldier on until “they” drag him away, which is what the California Highway Patrol most certainly should do.

This is in the same country, of course, that has denied American children the right to begin their school day with a voluntary prayer, where any mention of the Ten Commandments or God is being expunged from public buildings, and where schoolchildren in nine Western states have been ordered by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals not to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in school if it includes — as it has since 1954 — the words “under God.”

Is this not war?

And now the same renegade politicians and judges are trying to redefine the meaning of marriage, to include not only a legal union between a man and a woman, but between a woman and a woman and a man and a man. What’s next: a man and three women — a woman and four men?

Since the dawn of mankind, the sacred bond of marriage has been correctly defined as a union between one woman and one man.

Let’s get real: None of us would be here if we didn’t have a mother and father. Rosie O’Donnell can call her same-sex relationship anything she wants, but such a partnership is not “marriage” and doesn’t deserve to be called or accorded the privileges of marriage.

Believe me: I am no “homophobe.” You can’t survive, let alone thrive, in the entertainment business for 50 years without having friends — good, close friends — who are homosexual. Not one of these people has ever (nor will they ever) claim I have ever been judgmental or condemning. But that doesn’t change my views on the sanctity of marriage.

Consider the thoughts of two noted philosophers, Al Rantell and Thomas Jefferson.

Mr. Rantell, a homosexual, is a popular talk-show host here in LA-LA land. In a recent press release, Mr. Rantell gave what he calls “the answer” to the “seeming obsession by the gay left and their activist judicial allies like the Massachusetts justices to force gay marriage on an unwilling public.”

Mr. Rantell says: “Forcing a change to an institution as fundamental and established by civilization as marriage is deemed by gay activists and other cultural ’liberals’ as the equivalent of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for homosexuality itself. The reasoning goes that if someone can marry someone of the same sex, then being gay is as acceptable and normal as being short or tall.”

Mr. Rantell maintains the effort to redefine marriage as something other than a union between man and woman is not only wrong, but that most homosexuals frankly aren’t interested in the restrictions and commitments of marriage.

While I realize the mere mention of God makes some liberal know-it-alls squirm, let me quote from the ultimate authority on “separation of church and state,” Thomas Jefferson:

“Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure, when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath?”

Our views on marriage are shaped not only by America’s laws, but by God’s laws. It is part of the shared heritage of the civilized world.

There are moral absolutes in this life — and the sacred institution of marriage is one of them.

Pat Boone, singer and performer, sold more records in the 1950s than all other artists except Elvis Presley. Mr. Boone is in his 50th year of show business and is national spokesman for the 60 Plus Association, a senior-citizen advocacy group headquartered in Arlington, Va.