We tend to think that culture wars are a unique affliction of our unsettled age. In the 19th century, however, the country was engulfed in a moral struggle not only against slavery but also - and often with comparable fervor - against Mormon polygamy.

Fourth, the Washington DC City Council voted unanimously last week to recognize same-sex marriage performed elsewhere. All recognize this is a half step toward legalization.

However, I believe the battle will ultimately be won by supporters of traditional marriage. Remember that the Germans were ahead in 1943.

The second assumption forgets the religious grounding for some of our most hallowed proclamations of human rights. The Declaration of Independence declares that "all men are created equal" because "they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights." In his second inaugural address Abraham Lincoln said "American slavery is one of those offenses which . . . God now wills to remove."

But while big news was made last November when Florida and Arizona adopted constitutional amendments defending marriage and the voters of California approved Proposition 8 defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman, the news since has been disheartening, to say the least. In the course of the last two weeks, Iowa's state Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have the right to marry, and that the state has not right to limit marriage to heterosexual couples.