Marriage & Family
Jon Pincince responds to my most recent post on same-sex marriage essentially by making the counter-assertion: First, of course society should “allow dissenting opinions about the significance of homosexual relationships,” but those opinions should not be written into our laws to deny equal civil rights to those who enter into what some may consider less…
As Anthony Picarello, General Counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, explains marriage isn’t just about the rights of the individuals; it’s about the individuals’ relationship with society: The moral implications of changing the definition of marriage are where the debate has been largely centered. But, the legal implications of that same change are…
Wielding their new cost-free weapon, radicals continue to attack Christians in Canada: Catholic Insight, a Canadian magazine known for its fidelity to Church teachings, has been targeted by the Canadian Human Rights Commission for publishing articles deemed offensive to homosexuals. The commission has been investigating the Toronto-based publication since homosexual activist Rob Wells, a member…
It’s only because I know the dispersal of accountability to be a specialty of Rhode Island politicians that I’m suspicious, but a couple of items related to marriage have caught my attention this week. First is news of legislation to be proposed by House Minority Leader Gordon Fox (D, Providence) making same-sex divorce a reality…
It’s taken a while for me to get to it, but it’s still worth noting a surprisingly high-profile, front-page, Sunday Journal article by Jennifer Jordan: About 40 girls under the age of 15 become pregnant each year in Rhode Island. The number of girls ages 10 to 14 who become pregnant is substantially lower than…
7to7: The state Supreme Court has ruled that a same-sex couple married in Massachusetts may not divorce in Rhode Island. The court was split, 3-2, on the decision. In the case, the court was asked by the Rhode Island Family Court whether Margaret R. Chambers and Cassandra B. Ormiston, two women who were married in…
As an early-grave-working father of three children, whom my wife and I deliberately brought into the world at a relatively young age ourselves (by modern standards), with nowhere near the income nor savings that an accountant might require to balance out the cost of progeny, I find myself strangely split in my agreement with both…
The third mechanism that I posit as likely to undermine marriage should the definition be changed to include same-sex couples speaks to the core justification of public recognition and government encouragement of the institution. As I argue in terms of the first mechanism, if the state’s irreducible interest in encouraging marriage is to foster mutual…
Well, whaddaya know: Many speakers highlighted the fact that as polyamorists, they didn’t see themselves as adulterers or swingers. Instead, polyamory involves several simultaneous committed physically intimate relationships. Also, unlike polygamy, made famous by HBO’s “Big Love,” both females and males may have multiple partners. Polyamory NYC hosts monthly meetings at the LGBT Community Center…
In my experience with the same-sex marriage debate, the second corruptive mechanism that I suggest in answer to the question of how incorporating homosexual relationships would undermine marriage is often asserted to be the weakest, but it’s also the least well understood (whether the fault is mine, a failure of the imagination, or a desire…
