By Alan
Caruba
“Oxymoron:
A figure of speech in which antithetical incongruous terms are combined, as in a deafening silence or a mournful optimist; pointedly foolish.”
– Webster’s II New College Dictionary. To this definition, one can add
“same-sex marriage.”
In their
book, “America 3.0”, the authors, James C. Bennett and Michael J. Lotus, assert
that “The impact of marriage and family practices on our American life and our
history have been overwhelming. It has caused Americans to have a uniquely
strong concept of each person as an individual self, with an identity that is
not bound by family or tribal or social ties. Most cultures historically and
around the world today have nothing like this American spirit of individualism.
Our distinctive type American nuclear family has made us what we are.”
The
American nuclear family has always been defined as a man, a women, and children
resulting from that bond.
In
September, in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report released by the federal
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, stated that only about two percent (2%) of the U.S. population
are men who have sex with men. In addition, it stated that 80% of all new HIV
infections in 2010 were men and that 78% of those were among men who have sex
with men.
In total,
only about 3% of the population is homosexual. Given the constant media attention
given to this vocal minority as news and on television and in films, one might
be led to believe that they constitute are a far larger portion and yet they have
managed to alter public opinion significantly regarding their sexual
orientation and “rights” they claim have been denied.
In
October, Rasmussen Reports reported that “voters nationwide are almost evenly
divided when asked if marriage is a religious or civil institution, but
slightly more feel laws regarding marriage should be set at the state or local
level rather than by the federal government. There are sharp differences of
opinion over gay marriage depending on how voters feel about these two
issues…48% of likely U.S. voters consider marriage to be more of a religious
institution than a civil one. Nearly as many (45%) regard marriage more as a
civil institution.”
Try getting
married without a license issued by a state. You can’t. Whether you think it is
civil or religious—it is both—for millennia people worldwide have regarded
marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman, sanctioning it in law and practice.
For the
record, this is my view and I regard efforts to change this definition as a
threat to the core values of our society and the understanding that the nuclear
family is the most essential element of our society. I do not oppose so-called
“civil unions” that extend legal benefits to same-sex couples that are enjoyed
by a traditional marriage.
We have
seen what happens when the regard for fundamental elements of society are
altered. An example was the Supreme Court decision that ruled that abortion was
a legal right. The result has been the murder of millions of unborn children.
According to available data, in 2008, approximately
1.21 million abortions took place in the U.S., down from an estimated 1.29
million in 2002, 1.31 million in 2000 and 1.36 million in 1996. From 1973 through 2008, nearly 50 million legal abortions have
occurred in the U.S.
There are cases affecting the definition of
marriage coming up before the Supreme Court. In a June commentary by Ryan T.
Anderson, “On Marriage, Inevitability is a Choice We Can Reject”, the author
notes that “Citizens have gone to the polls to vote about marriage in 33
states. The truth about marriage has prevailed 30 of those 33 times.” He
expressed concern that “Still, no one can deny that Americans’ support for
marriage is not what it once was. This is largely because we have done an
insufficient job of explaining what marriage is, why marriage matters, and what
the consequences will be if we redefine marriage.”
“Marriage is founded on the anthropological
truth that men and women are different and complementary, the biological fact
that the union between a man and woman also creates new life, and the social
reality that children need a mom and a dad.”
“All the polls in the world cannot undo the
truth about marriage,” said Anderson, but they can obscure the truth and make
it less likely that men and women commit to each other permanently and
exclusively. This in turn reduces the odds that children will know the love and
care of their married mothers and fathers.”
What we have been witnessing in America has been
a systematic attack on its most fundamental civil foundations and, when the
voters have their say, they have overwhelmingly rejected same-sex marriage. However,
when the courts have ruled, the consequences have been far-reaching and
ultimately harmful to our society.
© Alan Caruba, 2013
1 comment:
This article describes a viewpoint with which I totally agree. I am a couple of years older than the writer, but my thoughts are aligned with Alan. Another difficulty is the increased marriage penalty which comes to us from Obamacare. A recent American Thinker describes that. Our president is trying to transform America into a feudal system where citizens become subjects.
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