A Mockery of Marriage

National Review ^ | Jan. 9, 2004 | Deroy Murdock

[tdadams]

Some food for thought and a little perspective. This is a point I've been making on this issue for a long, long time.

[Support Free Republic]

Rank	Location	Receipts	Donors/Avg		Freepers/Avg		Monthlies
56	Panama	25.00	1	25.00	5	5.00

Thanks for donating to Free Republic!

Move your locale up the leaderboard!

[Ol' Sparky]

Gay marriage should be attacked because it puts the government stamp of approval on deviant and destructive behavior -- homosexuality.

[Prime Choice]

Sorry...when someone breaks their vows or treats them with caprice, that does not reflect poorly on the institution of marriage. Rather, it reflects poorly only on the individual who cannot honor the vows they swore before God and family.

Gay marriage, on the other hand, will (and does) reflect poorly on the institution of marriage.

Massive difference, that.

[jolie560]

This is going to be an interesting issue to follow once the divorces start getting filed.

[Cindy]

JESUS DEFINES MARRIAGE: "And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore, they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." -from THE BIBLE: Matthew 19:4-6

International Healing Foundation

[kitkat]

***.... In 51 percent of cases, people stay married for life. Such unions are inspiring, impressive, and deserve every American's applause.***

WOW! Only a 49 percent chance of divorce. I think I'll turn gay to improve, by a tiny fraction, the chances that my marriage would last. /sarcasm

I wonder how many die of AIDS before a divorce can occur. I wonder what the divorce rate will be for any children they raise. I wonder how many children will be initiated into the "joys" of gaydom.

[kitkat]

***... In 51 percent of cases, people stay married for life. Such unions are inspiring, impressive, and deserve every American's applause.***

There are figures to prove this? ? ? Gay marriages have only been permitted within the last few months, so how can anyone say that 51 percent of the gay marriages last for life?

[reed_inthe_wind]

"but devoted male couples"

The false underlying assumption that homosexual culture warriors perpetuate is that the definition of marriage can be altered just a little. But, once we choose to ignore that marriage is a union between one man and one woman, marriage will morph into so many imaginative manifestations that the institution will give way to the legal certainty that we are all individuals. Marriage will cease to exist as a legally defensible institution. And, that is bad for adults, bad for kids, and bad for society.

[StonyBurk]

Completely agree.State recognition of same sex marriage/Civil unions is nothing less than the sign
of their surrender to the enemy of our Country and our way of life.I will Never surrender of my own free will

[plastic_positive]

***... In 51 percent of cases, people stay married for life. Such unions are inspiring, impressive, and deserve every American's applause.***

uh, it's worth noting that the aritcle specifically refers to this as a statistic for Heterosexuals.

personally, I think that divorce should only be granted quickly in cases of abuse, physical or mental. otherwise, there should be mandatory counseling, and a long waiting period, to encourage people to stay together and work it out.

and the "I was Drunk" excuse should not facilitate annullment.

[tdadams]

how can anyone say that 51 percent of the gay marriages last for life?

I think you've misread/misunderstood the article.

[Paleo Conservative]

***.... In 51 percent of cases, people stay married for life. Such unions are inspiring, impressive, and deserve every American's applause.***

I think that includes all marriages. There are a lot of repeat divorces. A few people having multiple marriages and divorces skews the overall number eg. Elizabeth Taylor. It would be more interesting to know the divorce rates for first marriages.

[txzman]

Yep - the attitude most young people take to marriage today - that it is disposable if you don't like it - does WAY more damage to society, children and the next generation than gays are doing.

But that also does not make the gay issue a very important one nevertheless.

[Orangedog]

Sorry...when someone breaks their vows or treats them with caprice, that does not reflect poorly on the institution of marriage. Rather, it reflects poorly only on the individual who cannot honor the vows they swore before God and family.

It reflects poorly on marriage as an institution when society passes and tolerates no-fault divorce laws. Those same laws and their bastard offspring have been used to destroy the American family for over 30 years, and are systematically used as a club against men. All the while the divorce lawyers and an increasing private industry are being enriched and the power of the courts enhanced. Get rid of the no-fault divorce laws and practices that evict good fathers from their families and the institution of marriage will be big enough to take care of itself again.

If it weren't for the fact that queer-marriage would further the enrichment of lawyers, I'd say let the queers have the litigious joke that modern marriage has become...it will destroy them just like it has the traditional family in this country.

[IronJack]

It would be far easier to take these claims seriously if gay-marriage critics spent as much energy denouncing irresponsible heterosexuals whose behavior undermines traditional marriage.

They spend HUGE amounts of energy denouncing irresponsible heterosexual behavior! And they're ridiculed for doing THAT too! They also attack the institutions that undermine successful heterosexual relationships and they defend the sacred traditions of man-woman matrimony.

For which efforts they are routinely lambasted, belittled, antagonized, lampooned, spoofed, heckled, and roasted. And by the same people that write such crap as this article.

By the way, when did Britney Spears become any kind of poster child for responsible heterosexuality? And who the blazes thinks the Right regards her as such? As often as not, she's been the target of right-wing criticism as a poster child for IRRESPONSIBLE sexuality. If the Left thinks they can attack the Right's family values by attacking Britney Spears, let's just say they're shooting in the wrong direction.

[longtermmemmory]

This is why we have anulments. Legally they were never married.

If anything it is a better argument to prohibit any further attack via homosexual marriage.

[longtermmemmory]

Homosexuals want marriage because of emotional gratification reasons. Marriage has nothing to do with love in the eyes of the law.

This Spears topic is a red herring. The goal is to remove children from the institution of marriage and make it just about sexual behavior.

Will every other sexual behavior group be far behind? They are lining up.

[longtermmemmory]

The divorce rate is actually off because it treats people who remarry the same person differently. If you remove remarriages to the same person the divorce rate drops to 40% (or thereabouts)

[kitkat]

***how can anyone say that 51 percent of the gay marriages last for life?***

~~~I think you've misread/misunderstood the article.~

You're absolutely right. I got the heteros and the homos mixed up. I apologize for my stupidity.

However, td, that doesn't mean that I misunderstood the article itself. My other comments still stand.