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Don't Blame The Gay Lobby, Blame The American Family
Bush Country.org ^ | 2-18-04 | Bush Country.org

Posted on 02/18/2004 10:30:02 AM PST by FlyLow

Should we recognize two men or two women as married? Or should we continue defining marriage as one man and one woman? America is not dealing merely with the rights of gays. America is falling and failing with demographic replenishment and family. The war about gay marriage is only a symptom of the greater disease, which is a culture not dedicated to family and children.

There are those who blame the rise of the Gay Lobby on certain activists, or on the atheist media. There is certainly some credit in that direction. However, if family-value Americans really believed in family, gays would still be in the closet. Gays are a product of a society where gender war and divorce are common.

As long as those who oppose gay marriage don’t themselves have a truly functioning family and marital environment, no amount of protesting will solve the problem. The Bible Belt has a huge divorce rate, almost as bad as everywhere else. What, then, can be done to fight with the gays about marriage when nobody wants it?

It is time for family people to put up or shut up. If they want family, then the tooth and nail, lobbying, and rallies must be against the society and culture of fun. This is the problem, not the gay lobby. Once we have strong families, the gay lobby will go tamely back to the closet. Or quite possibly, many homosexuals may take a new look at family, and decide to join the fun. Rabbi David Eidensohn


TOPICS: Extended News; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: civilunion; homosexual; homosexualagenda; marriage
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To: StatesEnemy
Perhaps and some men take their chances and end up with a good marriage and a houseful of children and are happy they took the chance. I think it is important more than anything to find someone willing to work through things and hang in there since it certainly does get tough sometimes. Also important to find someone who cares for obligations and commitments and not just their fleeting "happiness" as many women quote so often. Too many men are willing to go with women who "just want to be happy" instead of pairing that up with women who also value and respect their commitments and obligations.
41 posted on 02/18/2004 11:53:29 AM PST by cupcakes
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To: FlyLow
Once we have strong families, the gay lobby will go tamely back to the closet.

You're dreaming, Rabbi. Next stop, mandatory homosexuality.

42 posted on 02/18/2004 11:53:35 AM PST by hattend
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To: Taliesan
Great minds and all that. I responded to someone else about the same thing as far as looking for something in a woman. Along the lines of it is more important to find a woman(or a man) who wants to meet their obligations and resonsibilities AND wants to be happy, not just someone who wants happiness in and of itself because then when the times get rough, what is there to keep them glued to the person they made a commitment too? Nothing, since they will fly like a feather if they aren't currently living their version of happy.
43 posted on 02/18/2004 11:59:59 AM PST by cupcakes
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To: concerned about politics
LOL--plenty of us gals are unwilling to share too--anything and everything from our husbands to our income. I'd rather hire a maid and a cook to help me out then have my husband take an extra wife;-) It would probably be cheaper in the long run anyway. Anyhoo, with taxes as they are, I think we are already supporting some WIC/welfare family somewhere as it is. Perhaps we should be getting that family's EITC?
44 posted on 02/18/2004 12:07:16 PM PST by cupcakes
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To: george wythe
The answer is in the article... born-again Christians.

By their fruits ye will know them.
(There goes that survey down the toilet).

45 posted on 02/18/2004 12:08:07 PM PST by concerned about politics ( Liberals are still stuck at the bottom of Maslow's Hierarchy)
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To: concerned about politics
BTW our joke around here about the EITC is it is missing some letters--should be the EIFP/TCTNP--Earned income from producers/tax credit to non producers
46 posted on 02/18/2004 12:10:43 PM PST by cupcakes
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To: george wythe
Fifty Percent of American Marriages Are Ending in Divorce-Fiction!

Summary of Rumor:

Marriage has deteriorated so much that half the marriages in the United States are failing. There is a 50 percent chance that your marriage will not make it.

The Truth:

This is a fascinating piece of misinformation that is so respected that it is quoted without attribution by some of the best authors, broadcasters, and writers.

Marriage is a lot of hard work and people who are putting that work into it don't need the discouraging and untrue burden hanging over their heads that their relationship has only a 50 percent chance of surviving.

The error has resulted from various misreadings of the statistics.

One is to compare the number of marriages in a given year to the number of divorces in a given year. It is true that in any given year there may be twice as many marriages as divorces. If, in your state or county, there were 100 marriages last year but 50 divorces, it would seem, at first glance, that half the marriages were ending in divorce. But that figure does not take into account all the marriages that already existed. In a year in which there were 100 marriages and 50 divorces, for example, there may have already been 1,000 other marriages that already existed. That's an entirely different picture and means that only 5 percent of the marriages ended in divorce, not fifty percent. Of course, if that continues to happen every year, there is going to be an impact on the overall number of divorces compared with the overall number of marriages.

Veteran pollster Louis Harris says that only about 11 or 12 percent of people who have ever been married have ever been divorced. That means that by his figuring, 90 percent of American marriages survive.

Researcher George Barna did a professional survey which was designed to reflect the nation as a whole. He found that 24 percent of adults who had ever been married had experienced divorce.

Regardless, there isn't any credible source that we've found to support the fifty percent divorce rate myth.

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/d/divorce.htm

Is It Really 50 Percent? By Rich Buhler

It's been called America's most-often-cited statistic. It's so widely held to be true that it is repeated without question by authors, speakers, broadcasters, politicians, counselors and ministers.

Here are some examples from just a few Web sites on the Internet:

"Fifty percent of marriages will end in divorce." — An infidelity support group
"Fifty percent of all marriages now end in divorce." — Promotion for a book on divorce
"Fifty percent of all marriages in America end in divorce." — From the treasurer's office of a Midwestern state
"Over 50 percent of marriages end in divorce." — From a men's counseling center in California

Divorce is too common in America and that should not be taken lightly, but those who are committed to a lifetime of marriage don't need the discouragement accompanying the notion that half the marriages are going to self-destruct anyway.

I was once told by a young bride-to-be that she and her fiance had decided not to say "Till death do us part" in their wedding vows because the odds of it really happening were only 50-50.

Let me say it straightforwardly: Fifty percent of American marriages are not ending in divorce. It's fiction. A myth. A tragically discouraging urban legend.

If there's no credible evidence that half of American marriages will end up in divorce court, where did that belief originate?

Demographers say there was increased focus on divorce rates during the 1970s when the number of divorces rose, partly as a result of no-fault divorce. Divorces peaked in 1979 and articles started appearing that claimed 50 percent of American marriages were ending in divorce.

A spokesperson for the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics told me that the rumor appears to have originated from a misreading of the facts. It was true, he said, if you looked at all the marriages and divorces within a single year, you'd find that there were twice as many marriages as divorces. In 1981, for example, there were 2.4 million marriages and 1.2 million divorces. At first glance, that would seem like a 50-percent divorce rate.

Virtually none of those divorces was among the people who had married during that year, however, and the statistic failed to take into account the 54 million marriages that already existed, the majority of which would not see divorce.

Another source for the 50-percent figure could be those who were trying to predict the future of divorce. Based on known divorce records, they projected that 50 percent of newly married young people would divorce. University of Chicago sociologist and researcher Linda Waite told USA Today that the 50-percent divorce stats were based more on assumptions than facts.

So what is the divorce picture in America? Surprisingly, it's not easy to get precise figures because some states don't report divorces to the National Center for Health Statistics, including one of the largest: California.

Some researchers have relied on surveys rather than government statistics. In his book Inside America in 1984, pollster Louis Harris said that only about 11 or 12 percent of people who had ever been married had ever been divorced. Researcher George Barna's most recent survey of Americans in 2001 estimates that 34 percent of those who have ever been married have ever been divorced.

One of the latest reports about divorce was released this year by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). It is based on a 1995 federal study of nearly 11,000 women ages 15-44. It predicted that one-third of new marriages among younger people will end in divorce within 10 years and 43 percent within 15 years. That is not a death sentence, however; it's a forecast. Martha Farnsworth Riche, former head of the Census Bureau, told USA Today, "This is what is going to happen unless we want to change it."

Most important, the statistics and predictions about Americans in general don't tell the whole story about the future. There are other factors that affect a person's chances for a long marriage. The NCHS study of women, for example, shows that age makes a difference. Women marrying before age 20 face a higher risk for divorce. Marriages that have already lasted for a number of years are less likely to end in divorce. If your parents did not divorce, your chances are better than if you came from a broken home. Couples who live together before marriage are more likely to divorce.

http://www.family.org/married/youngcouples/a0021826.cfm

47 posted on 02/18/2004 12:28:04 PM PST by johnmorris886
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To: cupcakes
A newly arrived Republican appointee has pulled references to sexual orientation discrimination off an agency Internet site where government employees can learn about their rights in the workplace.

The Web pages at the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency whose mission is to protect whistleblowers and other federal employees from retribution, has removed references to sexual orientation from a discrimination complaint form, training slides, a brochure titled "Your Rights as a Federal Employee" and other documents. (Washington post)

I guess the government sees the lawlessness in SF as a decalaration of civil war. LOL.

48 posted on 02/18/2004 12:28:04 PM PST by concerned about politics ( Liberals are still stuck at the bottom of Maslow's Hierarchy)
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To: johnmorris886
Researcher George Barna's most recent survey of Americans in 2001 estimates that 34 percent of those who have ever been married have ever been divorced.

Barna is probably right about this, as well as the fact the Christians divorce at the same rate as non-Christians.

49 posted on 02/18/2004 12:48:32 PM PST by george wythe
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To: FlyLow
I doubt this Rabbi is Orthodox.
50 posted on 02/18/2004 1:02:07 PM PST by tuesday afternoon
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To: FlyLow
...rallies must be against the society and culture of fun.

This statement is the kind of idiocy that drives common folk away from the bible-thumping, self righteous moralizers who masquerade as conservatives. It says that to support the family and morality is to be against "fun," however the author defines it...No dancing, no movies, no laughter and certainly no joy.

The self-appointed bigot who wrote this is certainly no friend of families, children and conservativism.

51 posted on 02/18/2004 4:34:20 PM PST by Rudder
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