2. We ve Been Here Before,
If That Is Any Comfort
The Mormon polygamy controversy in the
United States, 1845-1895
3. [C]ertainly no legislation can be
supposed more wholesome and
necessary in the founding of a free,
self-governing commonwealth, fit to
take rank as one of the co-ordinate
States of the Union, that which seeks
to establish it on the basis of the idea
of the family, as consisting in and
springing from the union for life of
one man & one woman in the holy
estate of matrimony; the sure
foundation of all that is stable and
noble in our civilization; the best
guaranty of that reverent morality
which is the source of all beneficent
progress in social & political
improvement.
Murphy v. Ramsey, 114 U.S. 15, 45 (1885)
4. Purpose of Marriage Amendment:
To Prevent State Courts
from Invalidating the State Marriage Statute
Based on the State Constitution.
State courts in nine states have invalidated their
states marriage laws based on the state
constitutions, with Minnesota case possible # 10:
California, Hawaii and Alaska: Voters overturned
court decisions with constitutional amendments.
Maryland, New York and Washington: State
appellate courts overturned lower court decisions
invalidating state marriage laws.
Connecticut, Iowa and Massachusetts – state law
invalidated by state supreme court.
5. Fighting for Marriage and Helping the Poor
Why Marriage Matters: Twenty-One Conclusions from the
Social Sciences, Institute for American Values (2002)
updated second edition 2005.
Marriage fights poverty -
Research shows that divorce and unmarried
childbearing increase the economic vulnerability of
children and mothers…
Marriage builds wealth –
Married couples build more wealth on average
than do otherwise similar singles or cohabiting
couples, even after controlling for income.
6. Marriage helps children -
Parental divorce increases children s risk of school
failure and reduces the likelihood that they will
graduate from college.
Children who live with their own two married
parents enjoy better physical health and less infant
mortality than do children in other family forms.
Marriage is associated with reduced rates of alcohol
and substance abuse for both adults and teens.
7. Marriage reduces domestic violence, child abuse and
other crime -
Married woman experience less domestic violence
than women in cohabiting or dating relationships.
A child not living with his or her own married
parents is at greater risk for child abuse.
Boys raised in single parent homes are about twice
as likely (and boys raised in stepfamilies are three
times as likely) to have committed a crime that leads
to incarceration by the time they reach their early
thirties.
8. What is the State s Interest in Marriage?
Why does the government license marriages but not
friendships? Aren t they loving relationships, too?
Is a marriage license the government s confirmation
that two people really love each other?
Did societies develop marriage as a delivery
mechanism for government benefits?
Did societies develop marriage as a way for people to
save money through pooled resources?
So why do societies regulate marriage?
9. A consensus of world cultures from the dawn of
time, separated by centuries and continents, agree
that they must create and sustain a public institution
called marriage, that they uniformly define as one
man and one woman:
The family – based on a union, more or less durable,
but socially approved, of two individuals of the
opposite sexes who establish a household and bear
and raise children – appears to be a practically
universal phenomenon, present in every type of
society.
Anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss,
The View From Afar, pp. 40-41 (1985).
10. Nations from the dawn of history have regulated
marriage. The consensus of world cultures from
their collective experience is that:
- The interaction of men and women will
inevitably produce children. Society must deal
with that reality and has an interest in making
sure that children, the next generation of citizens,
are raised in the best way.
- Children are best raised by their own father and
mother, so society must develop ways to ensure
that happens.
11. Nations from the beginning of history have regulated
marriage. The consensus of world cultures from
their collective experience is that:
- Societies have learned from their collective
experience that if they allow everyone to do
whatever they want in terms of family and sexual
behavior, societies get…
- irresponsible men
- exploited women
- neglected and undisciplined children
12. Same-sex couples do not implicate this interest to
promote marriage because:
1. Same-sex couples cannot produce children
except for some sort of planned heterosexual
intervention.
2. Same-sex couples do not have a father and a
mother, so it is not the optimal environment
for raising children from society s standpoint.
Who is not necessary to raise the child, the
father or the mother?
13. Barack Obama made a similar point in a speech given June 15,
2008, the day before California started granting same sex
marriage licenses:
We are called to recognize and honor how
critical every father is to th[e] foundation
of the family. They are mentors and role
models… But if we are honest with ourselves,
we ll admit that what many fathers also are
is missing – missing from too many lives and
too many homes….We know the statistics – that children who grow
up without a father are 5 times more likely to live in poverty and
commit crime; 9 times more likely to drop out of schools and 20
times more likely to end up in prison… We need [fathers] to realize
that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to
realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child
– it s the courage to raise one.
14. Same-sex couples do not implicate this interest to
promote marriage because:
3. Advocates of same-sex marriage are not pro-
marriage but pro-personal choice.
Marriage is an option that should be open but
is not a superior choice from society s
standpoint. That sounds too much like the
discredited anything goes – personal choice
philosophy that creates immense social
problems for societies.
Story of Pierre who called me on a San Francisco
public radio show in 2004.
15. Harm #1
Redefining marriage changes its foundation from a Procreation
model to a Self-Satisfaction/Self-Autonomy model.
Adopting gay marriage would contribute significantly to changing
the public meaning of marriage from a structured social form to a
private relationship, from an institution with defined social
purposes to a right of personal expression.
David Blankenhorn, The Future of Marriage (2007) at 205.
. . . It is at moments like this that we realize that marriage itself
has changed. . . . From being a means to bringing up children, it
has become primarily a way in which two adults affirm their
emotional commitment to one another.
Andrew Sullivan, Introduction to Same-Sex Marriage, A Reader: Pro and Con, (1997), n.
82 at xix.
16. Example: Contrast Tiger Woods response to adultery
with that of same-sex marriage advocates:
The same boundaries that apply
to everyone apply to me. I brought
this shame on myself. I hurt my
wife, my kids, my mother…
Tiger Woods - Feb. 19, 2010
Openly homosexual author Andrew Sullivan has admitted
that most homosexuals understanding of the sexual
commitment in a marriage is considerably broader that what
nearly all heterosexual couples would tolerate. He added
that homosexuals have a need for extramarital outlets.
17.
18. Harm #2
It will increase attempts to legalize polygamy.
• Mormon polygamists in British Columbia are arguing in
court that the Canadian court decisions legalizing same-
sex marriage should also legalize polygamy.
• If same-sex orientation becomes a legitimate grounding
for same-sex marriage, it is likely that bisexual orientation
could become a legitimate grounding for group marriage.
David Blankenhorn, The Future of Marriage (2007) at 207.
• Growing Muslim populations in Europe will agitate for
legalized polygamy.
19. Harm #3
Religious liberty and the freedom of conscience will suffer
for people or institutions that believe in marriage.
• Business owners sued for discrimination
• Speakers sued for hate speech
• Counselors and social workers losing their professional
licenses
• Religious colleges losing their accreditation or sued for
discrimination
• Religious institutions losing their tax exemptions
20. Harm #4
People will increasingly be converted into commodities
by being paid to use their bodies to serve the reproductive
choices of others.
Is this progress or human trafficking?
In 2011, a male Spanish
couple showed their twins
carried by the impoverished
Indian woman they paid for
surrogacy services .
21. Typical Arguments Raised for Same-Sex
Marriage
1. Marriage is a fundamental right, so regular
marriage laws violate the human rights of
same-sex couples.
The right to marry is a right to enter into a
marriage consisting of a man and a woman, not a
right to redefine marriage to include anyone(s).
This is not marriage equality, but marriage
deconstruction. No society can have a common,
uniform definition of marriage – it is all radical
self-autonomy based in self-fulfillment.
22. Typical Arguments Raised for Same-Sex
Marriage
2. Marriage has changed over the centuries.
Women used to be their husband s chattel, and
some states banned interracial marriages.
This argument confuses the dynamics of marriage
with the definition of marriage. Two marriages
both consisting of one man and one woman, can
be totally different in the social dynamics between
the husband and wife – well educated husband and
wife living in condo in the big city contrasted with
Amish couple living on a farm.
23. 3. Marriage laws banning same-sex marriage are
morally wrong like old laws prohibiting
interracial marriage – Loving v. Virginia (1967).
- Race is not an inherent part of marriage – the
interracial couple sought to enter into marriage as
traditionally defined – one man and one woman
- But sex is an inherent part of marriage – only a
man and a woman together can produce a child,
and they can be of any racial background.
- American miscegenation laws prohibited only
white people from having an interracial marriage.
For example, Asians could legally marry blacks and
whites could marry Indians in certain circumstances.
24. 4. The law allows infertile couples and old couples
to marry, so society should permit infertile
same-sex couples to marry.
- Most opposite sex marriages do produce children.
- Only a man and a woman marriage can produce
children. A same-sex couple cannot produce
children, absent third party heterosexual help.
- The infertility of many couples is temporary.
- An infertile couple still can do something no
same-sex couple can ever do – raise a child with a
mother and a father.
25. Same-Sex Marriage is not Inevitable
Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh.
Is there anything too difficult for me?
Jeremiah 32:27
Oh give us help against the adversary,
For deliverance by man is in vain.
Through God we will do valiantly, And it is He
who shall tread down our adversaries.
Psalm 108:12-13
