SAVING MARRIAGE: Columbus Dispatch editorial

[I disagree re ssm, obviously, but most of this piece isn't even about that, and it's a much better defense of marriage than I've seen from any other editorial board. Good stuff. --Eve]

The successful initiative to amend the Ohio Constitution to prevent gays from marrying was a misguided effort toward a good end: preserving marriage. ...

...Children who are raised in single-parent households because of divorce or out-of-wedlock birth are far more likely to be poor, to do poorly in school and drop out, abuse drugs, contribute to teen-pregnancy statistics, or get in trouble with the law. As adults, their ability to form lasting attachments also is impaired. Examples of children being raised successfully by a single parent exist, but overall, children fare better in two-parent families. If raising children in stable, two-parent families is the goal, then the source of the problem is not gays, but heterosexuals, who beget the vast majority of children. ...

That oversight has cost society dearly: When parents fail to provide stability and security for their children, many of those children become societal liabilities. The problems that result compel the government to step in, with taxpayers footing the bill. For example, one researcher estimated that each divorce costs state and federal governments about $30,000 because it results in higher demand for food stamps and public housing and higher rates of juvenile delinquency and bankruptcy, among other effects.

Transforming children into productive adults is the fundamental job of every culture and society. Marriage is the most successful method ever devised to achieve that end.

For that reason, defending marriage is not simply a concern of religious people. Secularists, too, have an abiding interest in it. And so does government, contrary to the view of many that marriage is a private matter in which the government has no business. ...

Most ominously, even among those who chose marriage, it is seen less as an arrangement designed to meet the needs of children than as one whose purpose is to satisfy the companionship needs of the adult partners.

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posted by Eve at 6:19 PM | link

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