Sunday, August 5, 2012

Ten areas of agreement among conservatives on marriage

National Review ^ | 10-25-05 | dale carpenter

There are ten premises in this debate that most conservatives, opponents and supporters of gay marriage alike, probably share:
(1) Marriage benefits society, and so anything that harms marriage harms all of us, whether married or not.
(2) Marriage directly benefits the individuals married.
(3) It is on average better for children to be raised by two married parents than to be raised by single parents or by unwed cohabiting partners.
(4) Because of the benefits identified in Premises 1-3 above, marriage should be encouraged by public policy and specifically should retain its privileged position in the law.
(5) It is socially preferable for gay persons to be in committed relationships than to be promiscuous.
(6) If any significant change to an important social institution like marriage is undertaken at all it should occur slowly and incrementally, state-by-state, rather than in one fell swoop (as by court-ordered, nationwide gay marriage), so that we can assess the impact of the change and adjust the direction of reform or completely halt the reform...
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...

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