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Frank Turek asks: how would same-sex marriage affect society?

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His latest post from Cross-Examined  explores the consequences of legalizing same-sex marriage on children and society.

Excerpt:

The law is a great teacher, and same sex marriage will teach future generations that marriage is not about children but about coupling. When marriage becomes nothing more than coupling, fewer people will get married to have children.

So what? People will still have children, of course, but many more of them out-of wedlock. That’s a disaster for everyone. Children will be hurt because illegitimate parents (there are no illegitimate children) often never form a family, and those that “shack up” break up at a rate two to three times that of married parents. Society will be hurt because illegitimacy starts a chain of negative effects that fall like dominoes—illegitimacy leads to poverty, crime, and higher welfare costs which lead to bigger government, higher taxes, and a slower economy.

Are these just the hysterical cries of an alarmist? No. We can see the connection between same-sex marriage and illegitimacy in Scandinavian countries. Norway, for example, has had de-facto same-sex marriage since the early nineties. In Nordland,the most liberal county of Norway, where they fly “gay” rainbow flags over their churches, out-of-wedlock births have soared—more than 80percent of women giving birth for the first time, and nearly 70 percent of allchildren, are born out of wedlock! Across all of Norway, illegitimacy rose from 39 percent to 50 percent in the first decade of same-sex marriage.

Anthropologist Stanley Kurtz writes,“When we look at Nordland and Nord-Troendelag — the Vermont and Massachusetts of Norway — we are peering as far as we can into the future of marriage in a world where gay marriage is almost totally accepted. What we see is a place where marriage itself has almost totally disappeared.” He asserts that “Scandinavian gay marriage has driven home the message that marriage itself is outdated, and that virtually any family form, including out-of-wedlock parenthood, is acceptable.” But it’s not just Norway. Blankenhorn reports this same trend in other countries. International surveys show that same-sex marriage and the erosion of traditional marriage tend to go together. Traditional marriage is weakest and illegitimacy strongest wherever same-sex marriage is legal. 

You might say, “Correlation doesn’t always indicate causation!” Yes, but often it does. Is there any doubt that liberalizing marriage laws impacts society for the worse? You need look no further than the last 40 years of no-fault divorce laws in the United States (family disintegration destroys lives and now costs taxpayers $112 billion per year!).

No-fault divorce laws began in one state, California, and then spread to rest of the country. Those liberalized divorce laws helped change our attitudes and behaviors about the permanence of marriage. There’s no question that liberalized marriage laws will help change our attitudes and behaviors about the purpose of marriage. The law is a great teacher, and if same-sex marriage advocates have their way, children will be expelled from the lesson on marriage.

These are things that Christians need to know to intelligently discuss same-sex marriage. Most of his facts are things that I’ve blogged about before, but it helps to have it all in one place. The only concern I have is that you cannot even talk about the issue using facts any more – because you get shut down.

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2 thoughts on “Frank Turek asks: how would same-sex marriage affect society?”

  2. I will disagree with you on your last sentence.

    I think that this is true if you are talking to academics, students being indoctrinated by academics, and people with some kind of vested interest in the Media. However I do not think that this is so for the average person out on the streets. Here is why:

    1) I have been blessed with being able to share my faith with people from all walks of life. I have found lots of people to be quite open. If I look back on these conversations, my hunch is that these folks would be open to discussing other sorts of issues also without a shut down.

    I think it boils to Parable of the Sower. Maybe I have been blessed to live at times in places where the soil has been good.

    2) I went to Albany,NY last Monday to lend support for a press conference on SSM which had some Xtns speakers. There were two groups who had assembled in the Capitol building. The pro-SSM folks and the pro-Traditional Marriage folks (= Protestants, RC’s and orthrodox Jews.

    What was surprising about the whole thing was that the atmosphere there. The two groups were not at each others throats arguing, screaming, hurling expletives, etc. There was no rancor or hostility. Rather there was friendliness and dialogue. In fact a lot of conversations broke out the two sides. They talked about their struggles growing up and why SSM was important to them. We talked about where we were coming from, the Bible’s teachings and our concerns. While at the end you were not able to agree, you found that you could be heard and even be friends with the other.

    That was my experience and my friend’s. I wondered if it was just me but National Review and some other blog has confirmed that this is how it was. Maybe it was a 1-off, but I would like to think otherwise. I would like to think that at the street level people are open to talking.

    One more thing … the pro-SSM folks were highly organized and on the ball with things. They also had incredible leadership and help from Gov. Cuomo. Our churches on the other hand … at times not even a prayer request from the pulpit.

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