OLYMPIA WA: "Redefine marriage and history will not be kind to you"
OLYMPIA WA: "Redefine marriage and history will not be kind to you"
The following prepared remarks were delivered to the Washington state legislature hearings on the definition of marriage in Olympia, Washington
by Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse
http://www.ruthblog.org/
January 30th, 2012
I am here today to address those of you who have already made up your minds to redefine marriage. History will not be kind to you. Previous generations of social experimenters have caused unimaginable misery for millions of people. Particular people advocated the policies that led to today's 50% divorce rate and 40% out of wedlock childbearing rate. None of these people has ever been held accountable.
I am here today to hold you to account, for the predictable harms you have already caused and will continue to cause by redefining marriage.
Let me remind you of the essential public purpose of marriage. Marriage attaches mothers and fathers to their children, and to one another. Once you replace that essential public purpose with inessential, even frivolous private purposes, marriage will not be able to do its job. But children will still need secure attachments to their mothers and fathers, a need which will go unfulfilled.
You are redefining parenthood, as a side effect of redefining marriage, without even considering what you are about to do. Until now, marriage makes legal parenthood track biological parenthood. The legal presumption of paternity means that children born to a married woman are presumed to be the children of her husband. With this legal rule, and the social practice of sexual exclusivity, marriage attaches children to their biological parents.
Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org
The following prepared remarks were delivered to the Washington state legislature hearings on the definition of marriage in Olympia, Washington
by Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse
http://www.ruthblog.org/
January 30th, 2012
I am here today to address those of you who have already made up your minds to redefine marriage. History will not be kind to you. Previous generations of social experimenters have caused unimaginable misery for millions of people. Particular people advocated the policies that led to today's 50% divorce rate and 40% out of wedlock childbearing rate. None of these people has ever been held accountable.I am here today to hold you to account, for the predictable harms you have already caused and will continue to cause by redefining marriage.
Let me remind you of the essential public purpose of marriage. Marriage attaches mothers and fathers to their children, and to one another. Once you replace that essential public purpose with inessential, even frivolous private purposes, marriage will not be able to do its job. But children will still need secure attachments to their mothers and fathers, a need which will go unfulfilled.
You are redefining parenthood, as a side effect of redefining marriage, without even considering what you are about to do. Until now, marriage makes legal parenthood track biological parenthood. The legal presumption of paternity means that children born to a married woman are presumed to be the children of her husband. With this legal rule, and the social practice of sexual exclusivity, marriage attaches children to their biological parents.
Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org
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