Marriage is an aspect of society which affects different institutions such as family, government and others. There are many respected and accepted definition of marriage even before the issue of the same-sex marriage appeared in the society. However, basic concepts and principles should always be present in marriage since it is a part of the societal development. In this essay, the definition of marriage is analyzed using three articles written by respectable authors. The essay also opts to analyze which article defines marriage the most convincing.
Same-sex marriage has been so popular. There are some arguments of articles from pros and cons even the neutrals. Gregory Blair justifies same-sex marriage in ‘Who Cares If Gays Marry?’ wherein he gives his insights from history and culture around the globe. Robert Benne and Gerald McDermott wrote an article more than ten years ago entitled ‘Why Gay Marriage Would Be Harmful?’ wherein they discuss the bad effects of same-sex marriage in a long run. While Jessica Bennett and Jesse Ellison discussed the un-necessity of marriage in ‘I Don’t: The Case Against Marriage’. Blair, Bennett and Ellison gave thoughts that influenced most people; however, perhaps none of them defined marriage and have a greater outcome of results than Benne and McDermott. Marriage is essential to the society and it should have a complete, strong and life-long relationship of mother, father and children.
Marriage is always a “life-long union of a man and a woman” (Benne and McDermott, 1). It is needed to have a whole family – man, woman and children. Marriage is the tying of a man and a woman but the real knot of relationship will be given by their children. It is made “for the procreation of children” this will help both man and woman to fulfill their vows before the altar by trying to give their children education, clothing, food and other necessities to their child and for themselves. Thus, “homosexuals cannot biologically fulfill this function” (Blair, 1). It is difficult to raise a child that is not in your bloodline. Same-sex couples will adjust dramatically if they foster children. People who did the fostering will have a great challenge psychologically and physiologically. Once the foster children reach the elementary age, they will start asking their foster parents ‘why’ and ‘how’ because of the bombardments of questions from their classmates. This relationship cannot make a good result both in the foster parent and foster children. The parents will then regret in fostering the children resulting to harassment and molestation. Therefore, you cannot even have a family in a same-sex relationship for there is no bond of children, husband, and wife.
Marriage will give a privilege to raise children of their biological parents. Many of us love our parents because of their love towards us by providing our needs and keeping us honest, polite, generous, and almost all of the good habits that they can teach. Even a drunkard father will tell his children not to drink alcohol. Government supports this tradition and a legitimate family enjoys “access to a host of legal rights” (Bennett and Ellison, 1) like Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) where “all rights formerly given to parents under FERPA transfer to the student” (U.S. Department of Education). This is a support from the Government to help parents in raising their children. The child will also look forward for this program as a good privilege in his or her future parenting. Otherwise, the same-sex parents have great challenges. Research finds that they cannot sustain the education of their children or foster children. A research of Mark Regenerus, Associate Professor of Sociology in University of Texas in Austin, in 2012 comparing kids of same-sex parents and heterosexual parents said “sixty-nine percent of children of lesbian mothers reported that their family received public assistance, such as welfare at some point, compared with seventeen percent from intact biological families” (Ryan Jaslow, 1). This will lead the same-sex parents to stop the education of their children and even give them to a foster home. This is not the only case, “research has also shown that children raised by homosexuals were more dissatisfied with their own gender, suffer a greater rate of molestation within the family, and have homosexual experiences more often” (Benne, McDermott, 2). This will give a higher possibility that the children will partake of drugs, alcohol, homosexual relationships, and more likely to spend his life in prison. This is the main reason why the majority of the government oppose of the same-sex marriage.
Marriage can give better governance. Having mortality rate inside a heterosexual relationship gives their children to yield the same path as their parent. Mortality rate can distinguish the man-power of a country. And parenthood inside a marriage will give that man-power not only the quantity but also the quality of the next generation. “The birth rate dropped less than 1 percent, to just under 63 births per 1,000 women of child-bearing age. That's the lowest it's ever been, according to U.S. health records” (Mike Stobbe, 1). According from Stobbe, the birth rate was low in the past five years. This will likely to go down in the next ten years because there are more people participating in a same-sex relationships as it becomes popular from year to year. “Under President Obama’s new health plan, low-earning single people get better subsidies to buy insurance” (Bennett and Ellison, 1). A day will come that the government will suffer because of lesser tax-payers and more of having public assistance. It is because a day will come that the number of old people will be more than the younger people.
Marriage has an important role in the society. Though, there are lots of challenges in marriage it is still the most wonderful event in life. Otherwise, same-sex marriage has a greater cause in the future. We might not see it today but in the future we’ll do. But as for marriage, let’s keep it as in primitive times from the time of Adam where they lived and raised their children righteously and taught them to do the same thing. This is the meaning of marriage: from parent to children and from your children to your children’s children. It will continue as long as we don’t stop it.
The most convincing article is the “Speaking Out: Why Gay Marriage Would Be Harmful” by Benne and McDermott. In this article, the essential aspects of marriage were discussed. It also reports the idea that marriage is an important function of the society. These functions include order, governance, and societal uniformity. Without these functions, the importance of marriage in the society is damaged, and the major institution of home is also destroyed.
Works Cited
Benne, Robert and Gerald McDermott. “Speaking Out: Why Gay Marriage Would Be Harmful?” Christianity Today, 01 Feb 2004. Web. 7 Nov. 2014. <http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/februaryweb-only/2-16-41.0.html?start=3>
Bennett, Jessica and Jesse Ellison. “I Don’t: The Case Against Marriage.” Culture. Newsweek, 23 Jul. 2014. Web. 7 Nov. 2014. <http://www.newsweek.com/case-against-marriage-73045>
Blair, Gregory. “Who Cares If Gays Marry.” Web. 7 Nov. 2014. <http://www.2writers.com/Who%20Cares%20if%20Gays%20Marry.htm>
Jaslow, Ryan. “Kids of Gay Parents Fare Worse, Study Finds, But Research Draws Fire from Expert.” CBS News, 12 Jun 2012. Web. 7 Nov. 2014. <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/kids-of-gay-parents-fare-worse-study-finds-but-draws-fire-from-experts/>
Stobbe, Mike. “U.S. Birth Rate Increase For First Time In 5 Years, Report Says.” Huffington Post, 29 May 2014. Web. 7 Nov. 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/29/us-birth-rate-increases_n_5413030.html>
U.S. Department of Edcation. “Laws and Guidance: FERPA General Guidance for Students” Web. 7 Nov. 2014. <http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/students.html>
