Miss California, Carrie Prejean, was on James Dobson‘s radio show today, talking about the gay marriage question that made her an icon for Christian conservatives everywhere:
Here’s a bit of the transcript:
Dobson: It sounded, Carrie, like your first reaction was to hedge, to say “Well, this is a free country” and then something took over.
Prejean: It really was a switch.
Dobson: And you did one of the most courageous things I’ve seen anybody your age or anybody else do. What was going on in your mind?
Prejean: I started off by saying I want to win this pageant so bad, I’ve worked so hard, I wanted to sound politically correct but still stay true to my values. But I just knew at that moment that God was just telling me “Carrie, how bad do you want this? Are you willing to compromise your beliefs for a one year crown of Miss USA.” And I just knew right there… And I said you know what and the switch went off. And I said, “A marriage should be between a man and a woman and that’s how it should be.”… And I knew there was no way I was going to win Miss USA. No way.
Dobson: So you put it on the line, that’s what I mean when I said you’re courageous because this was the goal of your life to that point. And yet you gave it up. And yet the Lord is using you all over this country.
Prejean: And we are all faced with that at times. And just by me being here, I want to encourage other people that when you’re faced with an issue which you know in your heart what to say, but you’re faced with someone asking it, don’t ever compromise that just for pleasing them. Your goal should be to please God, not to please man…
Dobson: Why did you give the answer you did with regard to the affirmation of marriage?
Prejean: … I felt as though Satan was trying to tempt me in asking me this question. And then God was in my head and in my heart saying, “Do not compromise this. You need to stand up for me and you need to share with all these people… you need to witness to them and you need to show that you’re not willing to compromise that for this title of Miss USA.”
And I knew right here that it wasn’t about winning. It was about being true to my convictions.
A few points to make:
- The Lord isn’t using Prejean. The Religious Right is.
- I didn’t realize Perez Hilton was Satan.
- Anyone else think she just gave a shitty answer, albeit with her actual opinion? It would’ve been far more interesting for the Religious Right if she had said to Hilton: “I know you and many other people here support gay marriage, but I do not. I am a Bible-believing Christian and my faith tells me marriage is between a man and a woman.” She didn’t. In fact, she didn’t even know what’s going on with gay marriage in this country. She said, “We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage.” Of course, we don’t have that choice thanks to people like her.
- Dobson makes no mention of the fact she would not have won the Miss USA title regardless of her answer to the gay marriage question.
Donald Trump, who owns the rights to the pageant, said so himself:
Trump also said, contrary to popular belief, Prejean’s answer did not cost her the title. “We went back and added up the scores,” he said, “and she would not have won anyway. So that makes me feel better because it was a tough question.”
I would love to see her get asked some tough questions, though. The conservatives are tossing her softballs because they know she can’t handle any complexity. If they want to make her the official spokesperson for “opposite marriage,” fine. Let’s see where her mind is at when she has to go for a real interview.