Monday, May 17, 2004
My favorite SSA Catholic comments
Colleen Carroll Campbell has a good essay out today on this:
After all, if marriage is only a temporary union of people who share a sexual relationship, how can its benefits be denied to homosexual couples or to heterosexual couples who live as if they are married? And if the meaning of marriage is defined exclusively by individual couples, how can its benefits even be confined to those in a sexual relationship? If marriage is truly a private affair, then any couple or group of people could lay claim to its benefits, and it could benefit anyone.
Except, of course, for those whose welfare has always depended on the special support society gives to traditional marriage, those whose interests are so rarely heard above the din of adults clamoring for their rights. Statistics consistently show that children raised by married mothers and fathers are less likely to be poor, less likely to engage in risky behaviors like premarital sex and drug abuse, and more likely to succeed in school.
Perhaps the children of America should flock to our courthouse doors and demand that we start respecting their rights.
It will never work of course, marriage isn't about kids any more. Marriage is about us and what we want. The kids can more or less lump it - and stop crying, it's really not so bad. You can visit every other weekend and here, meet Joe/Sandra my newest boy/girlfriend.
After all, if marriage is only a temporary union of people who share a sexual relationship, how can its benefits be denied to homosexual couples or to heterosexual couples who live as if they are married? And if the meaning of marriage is defined exclusively by individual couples, how can its benefits even be confined to those in a sexual relationship? If marriage is truly a private affair, then any couple or group of people could lay claim to its benefits, and it could benefit anyone.
Except, of course, for those whose welfare has always depended on the special support society gives to traditional marriage, those whose interests are so rarely heard above the din of adults clamoring for their rights. Statistics consistently show that children raised by married mothers and fathers are less likely to be poor, less likely to engage in risky behaviors like premarital sex and drug abuse, and more likely to succeed in school.
Perhaps the children of America should flock to our courthouse doors and demand that we start respecting their rights.
It will never work of course, marriage isn't about kids any more. Marriage is about us and what we want. The kids can more or less lump it - and stop crying, it's really not so bad. You can visit every other weekend and here, meet Joe/Sandra my newest boy/girlfriend.
