Posted on 02/27/2004 9:27:14 PM PST by Tangerine Time Machine
The Nordic track
COVER STORY: State approval of homosexual marriage in Scandinavia contributed to the virtual disappearance of real marriage
By Gene Edward Veith
No matter what happens in the homosexual-marriage/civil-union controversies, marriage as an institution isn't going away, is it?
Yes, it is. Marriage has already all but disappeared in Scandinavia. Other Europeans are heading down that Nordic track. And, if gay marriage is legalized, so will we.
That is the conclusion of Stanley Kurtz, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, whose article "The End of Marriage in Scandinavia" was published in The Weekly Standard.
Sweden was the first country in Europe to legalize homosexual unions in 1989, and Denmark and Norway followed soon thereafter. Today, a majority of children in those countries are born out of wedlock. Although some older couples are getting married after having more than one child, younger couples are dispensing with marriage altogether. Southern Seminary president Al Mohler reports that in Sweden, the few young couples who do get married often do not like to admit it, since what they have done is so far out of the norm that they feel embarrassed.
Couples just live together for awhile. If the woman has a baby, the father-unlike in the United States-will typically stay around until the baby reaches a certain age. Until recently, if they had a second child together, they would typically get married, but this has changed for the new generation. Once the children are grown, the parents typically go their separate ways.
What role has gay marriage played in the disappearance of marriage in Scandinavia? "Scandinavian gay marriage has driven home the message that marriage itself is outdated," says Mr. Kurtz, "and that virtually any family form, including out-of-wedlock parenthood, is acceptable."
More direct causes Mr. Kurtz cites include the Scandinavian welfare state, which means that the family unit is no longer necessary for economic support. Plus, to support that welfare state, taxes are so high that both parents have to work. A vast state day-care system has taken over many of the child-care duties that once were the job of families. Also, the universities are even more radical than they are in the United States, with socialists, feminists, and other social revolutionaries-including those who denounce marriage as being intrinsically oppressive-having a huge influence in public policy.
Homosexual marriage has contributed to the dissolution of marriage as a significant institution in Scandinavian culture primarily by contributing to the notion that marriage need have nothing to do with having children.
Most instructive for Americans is what happened with Norway, traditionally the most conservative of the Scandinavian states. Sweden and Denmark have always been far more liberal, and in those nations the public wanted gay marriage. In Norway, though, the general public had gay marriage foisted upon it from above, by elite judges and lawmakers. The state Lutheran church opposed not only gay marriage but the growing trend of cohabitation and having children out of wedlock. The church also fought an internal battle over the ordination of those in homosexual unions.
The media covered the church's debates over these issues, taking every opportunity to attack and ridicule Christian teachings about sexuality and marriage. As a result, the church's traditionally strong influence on Norwegian society declined. When the dust settled, the liberal pro-gay and cohabitation theologians, who were once in a minority, took over the leadership of the church.
Another important finding about the Scandinavian experience with what Mr. Kurtz describes as "de facto" gay marriage-actually, they are "civil unions"-is how few homosexuals actually enter into them. A study published by Yale's William Eskridge in 2000 showed that after nine years, only 2,372 homosexual couples took advantage of the Danish law allowing gay unions. After four years, only 749 gay Swedes and only 674 gay Norwegians bothered to "get married."
Today's gay activists in Scandinavia, having gotten everything they wanted, now admit that their case for homosexual marriage-particularly that allowing gays to marry will encourage a monogamous lifestyle-was only a tactical argument. The goal, says Mr. Kurtz, citing two prominent gay thinkers, "was not marriage but social approval for homosexuality."
They achieved that goal, but now there is little social approval for marriage.
Their Viking ancestors were mostly pagans. The conversion to Christianity was the result of English, French and German attempts to subvert Viking power, usually by baptizing some pretender to a Viking throne and sending them back with mercenaries to overthrow the legitimate Viking rulers.
The conversion of Scandinavia to Christianity generally marks the end of the Viking period. Christianity changed them from fierce warriors to the pusillanimous wimps of today.
I think they just had not been targeted until recently.
Year | Marriages |
---|---|
1970 | 43278 |
1971 | 39918 |
1972 | 38636 |
1973 | 38251 |
1974 | 44864 |
1975 | 44103 |
1976 | 44790 |
1977 | 40370 |
1978 | 37844 |
1979 | 37300 |
1980 | 37569 |
1981 | 37793 |
1982 | 37051 |
1983 | 36210 |
1984 | 36849 |
1985 | 38297 |
1986 | 38906 |
1987 | 41223 |
1988 | 44229 |
1989 | 108919 |
1990 | 40477 |
1991 | 36836 |
1992 | 37173 |
1993 | 34005 |
1994 | 34203 |
1995 | 33642 |
1996 | 33784 |
1997 | 32313 |
1998 | 31598 |
1999 | 35628 |
2000 | 39895 |
2001 | 35778 |
2002 | 38012 |
2003 | 39041 |
The falling numbers from 1993 to 1998 are generally explained by the economic turmoil Sweden went through - historically couples have been less likely to marry when the economy has been down.
What about the uptick from 1999 on?Parts of it is supposed to be the recovering economy, with the rest being that it's become more "fashionable" to get married the last couple of years. Apparently not only the fashion of clothes change through the years.
I have a hard time seeing the effects the article talks about in the statistics and the interpretation the experts are offering (though it's possible they're all ultra-liberal and wouldn't ever point towards homosexual marriage). Lacking convincing evidence, it seems to me Stanley Kurtz first decided what result he thought was appropriate and then interpreted the data to fit the hypothesis.
So, if your stats are accurate then the whole premise of the article is rubbish?I wouldn't go as far as saying that, but from the data I've seen the conclusions seem, let's say suspect. Being a Swede I can tell you first hand that some things are plain wrong, like that young couples who get married would not like to admit it because of embarrassment, but that could be an innocent error. As I haven't read the original article refered to here it's hard to say more.
That out-of-wedlock parenthood is acceptable here in Sweden has, in my opinion (not supported by any fancy statistics), more to do with secularization than anything else. Tying it to homosexual "marriage" seems to me like blaiming the effect for the cause.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.