A Gathering Storm

The title of a “religious liberty ad campaign” challenging same-sex marriage, released by the National Organization for Marriage.

On April 8, the National Organization for Marriage launched a $1.5 million advertising campaign, “to protect marriage and religious liberty throughout the nation:”

The centerpiece of the new ad campaign is the 60-second TV spot ‘A Gathering Storm,’ bringing viewers face to face with the growing religious liberty threat posed by same-sex marriage.

Inevitably, YouTube responses to this (melo)dramatic advert came thick and fast – try here, or here – and Gawker posted fascinating raw footage said to be from the advert’s original auditions. [Update: This video is no longer available "due to a copyright claim."]

In The Spectator, Alex Massie mused on the N.O.M.’s choice of title:

“Gathering Storm” is not, I suspect, a phrase chosen at random even if it does rather confirm the American right’s embarrassing fetishisation of Winston Churchill. No wonder my socially conservative friend deplores the “charlatans” on his side of the debate just as much as he does the momentum on “the other side”. Nevertheless, it’s rather breathtaking to imply, rather crudely, that the “threat” posed by gay marriage is akin to that from Nazi Germany. (And the Nazis of course were famous for their enthusiastic approval of homosexuality…)

(“The Gathering Storm” is the title of the first volume of Winston Churchill’s chronicle of World War II.)