WHAT IS THE FEAR?: Mark Tardiff vs. Mark Miller

Mark Miller writes, "As I've said before and I still believe it, the fear is not that the acceptance of same sex relationships will doom the institution of marriage. The fear is that they will not."

I cannot speak for everyone, but my fear certainly is that legally recognizing same-sex unions as marriage will do great damage to the institution of marriage, though I grant that the sky will hardly fall the following day.

In many posts on this site and others many make the point that legalization of SSM is the next logical step following upon changes in society and in marriage during these last 40 years. Others make what Maggie Gallagher keeps referring to as the "argument from despair," that marriage is in such bad shape now that there is not much sense in opposing SSM. Both of these arguments acknowledge an important fact: SSM is in continuity with the sexual revolution and growth of the divorce culture. Therefore it is not at all unreasonable to anticipate that SSM would exacerbate the problems brought on by these cultural and legal changes: family disintegration and social chaos. (These problems, by the way, were certainly not brought about by decriminalizing interracial marriages.)

In fact, if the sexual revolution and divorce culture had not already redefined marriage in many people's minds already, the arguments for SSM would not have been able to make any headway. The social cost of this redefinition is simply too high: We cannot afford to embrace what is tearing our society apart.
posted by maggie at 10:22 AM | link

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