4thTimeLucky

Okay, well firstly I don't think we should accept that if we allow things to continue as they are in "today's society" that we will be doing a good job of government. There are lots of things that are "apparent in today's society" - teenage pregnancy, gun crime, asbentee parents etc. - that I think we should be trying to 'roll back'.

But that is an aside. The big question you asked was: what harm could come of homosexual marriages?
Now please remember two things before I continue this post: Firstly, this is not an 'attack' on homosexuals - in fact my normal position would be to defend homosexual marriage, but I thought I should try and see things from the other side in this thread. Secondly, I am trying to foresee a possible future. That means you can easily criticise what I say as just guesswork or mad fancy. Imagine trying to stand up during the Sixties and tell people what some of the less desirable results of the sexual revolution would be. You'd be shouted down. I hope that I will not be shouted down here. But thoughtful comments are of course welcome.

So, the future....

Marriage is an institution. An institution that plays a vital role in society. It is a bond that holds parents and families together, which as we have seen in other threads is the only place that children can really be educated with moral values and the skills of life.

However marriage is an institution in crisis. The divorce rate is rising and fewer people feel the need to formalise their relationships with it. The bond of marriage is increasingly seen as a straightjacket that prevents us from following our true desires and living free and uninhibited lives.

But there is still hope for marriage. It has the support of the church (and in other countries their respective religions) and it is still seen as something special, both by the state, by employers and by many (if not most) individuals.

Wat makes a thing special? Well two important factors are exclusivity and tradition. Univeristies are considered special because not everyone can go there (you have to meet a certain academic standard) and it has a tradition (e.g. Oxford or Harvard). Also there is a special expectation upon university students - they will generate the ideas and businesses of the future.

So why is marriage special? Well, because it is part of a tradition, supported by the church, that binds together the nuclear family and recgonises it as something special: it is the basic unit of society and raises the next generation. Furthermore, marriage is an exclusive club - you cannot join until you are 18 (without parents consent), you cannot join without making special commitments and sacrifices, you cannot join with someone of your own family or with more than one person and you cannot join unless it is with someone of the opposite sex. Marriage is entwined with the nuclear family and that is why it is respected - it gives you a new and imprtant role in the future of society. With that come benefits (from state and employer) and also responsibilities (towards each other and towards your children). The law also incorporates an emphasis upon the different roles taken by men and women (e.g. that women give birth and often take more responsibility for child rearing - this may seem sexist, but it is how the law operates and is intended to reflect the reality of most families).

So what could some possible impacts of allowing same-sex marriage be?
1) Marriage currently still has the public's support and the majority in the US do not want to legalise same-sex marriage. Ignoring this fact and legalising same-sex marriage will create even more dissillusionment with the institution and speed its decline.

2) Opening up marriage to same-sex couple will send a message that marriage is not entwined with the nuclear family and that it is seen as just a legal mechanism for conferring certain rights and benefits upon long-standing couples. This devalues marriage and undermines it as a pillar that supprts the nuclear family.

3) Opening up marriage to same-sex couples will be the death knell of its exclusivity. The allowance of same-sex marriage will require a rewriting of the rights, benefits and duties of married couples (because marriage laws were written with male-female unions in mind and many laws will no longer be appropriate), which will almost inevitably be a "dumbing down". There will be less that is special and 'set-apart' about marriage and its currency and worth will be devalued.

4) The institution of marriage currently has the total support of the church. This support is very important, especially in a religious country like the US. Allowing same-sex marriage will seriously undermine the support that the church can, and would want to, give it. It will drive a wedge between the church and the state on the issue of marriage. For those wanting to see a gulf between church and state this will be a good thing, but for the institution of marriage it would be terrible. We could face a future where the church, rather than stoop to accomodate this new civil marriage system, tries to reclaim marriage by having exlcusively religious marriages for its members. Then following these religious marriages the couple could go and make it a civil union as well, if they wanted to. What would be happening is that marriage would become too meaningless/untraditional for the church and too traditional/out-of-date/negatively-associated for everyone else. The result: civil marriage suits no one and dies a death, replaced by highly religious ceremonies at one extreme and loose ceremonial unions (or no unions at all) at the other.

In summary: Same-sex marriages would be a big step along the road to a future in which... Marriage has little weight, little meaning and little value. The benefits, rights and duties that are associated with it are whitled down until there si nothing left but a skeleton, where once there was a healthy body. The church has retracted its support of civil marriage in favour of a reclaimed religious marriage for its congregation. In the end marriage as a state institution and support for the general nuclear family withers away, to be replaced by purely-religious marriages at one end of the spectrum and a diversity of ceremonies and unions at the other. Marriage is dead, the population is divided and children suffer.

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I've been 4thTimeLucky, you've been great. Goodnight and God bless!