Posted by
TheChair on Monday, July 28, 2008 11:27:40 AM
The Winter 2007 issue of Claremont Review of Books took a favorable look at David Blankenhorn's book, The Future of Marriage. Blankenhorn is a liberal Democrat who opposes same-sex marriage. (He also wrote Fatherless America.) According to reviewer F. Carolyn Graglia, the book is an "invaluable resource" in the marriage debate. Graglia says Blankenhorn's marriage's main purpose and concern isn't to fulfill immediate needs of adults, but the long-term needs of children and of society.
What children need most are mothers and fathers. Not caregivers. Not parent-like adults. Not even ‘parents.' What a child wants and needs more than anything else are the mother and the father who together made the child, who love the child, and who love each other.
To be sure, heterosexuals eroded this ideal, converting 1950s marriage culture into 1970s divorce culture. Today, more than 40% of all first marriages end in divorce (the rates for second and third marriages are even higher), and more than half of all U.S. children will spend "at least a significant part of their childhood living apart from their father." But redefining marriage to include same-sex couples, Blankenhorn argues, "would eliminate entirely in law, and weaken still further in culture, the basic idea of a mother and a father for every child," the precise purpose for which marriage was created. Same-sex marriage advocates deny this, arguing that sex and children are not at the heart of marriage, which they redefine as simply "a commitment between two people" in an "intimate, caring relationship." This definition, says Blankenhorn, is "wildly inadequate." He demonstrates that marriage developed as an institution in all human societies "to bridge the sexual divide, facilitate group living, and carry out reproduction." Essentially, "marriage is socially approved sexual intercourse between a woman and a man" within a relationship structured so that "any children resulting from the union are...emotionally, morally, practically, and legally affiliated with both of the parents."
You should be able to read all of Graglia's review here:
http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1511/article_detail.asp
The book is available here:
http://www.amazon.com/Future-Marriage-David-Blankenhorn/dp/1594030812/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217259047&sr=8-1
In the future, I'll be linking to and quoting from many Claremont articles from the past. In particular, political philosophy professor Harry Jaffa has had much to say on why homosexual union is a danger to society.