I just spent an hour watching a man named Ryan T. Anderson talk about why marriage is defined as being between a man and a woman and what effects that and other possible definitions do or could have on society as a whole. He is in favor of traditional marriage, but for the sake of this argument, he left tradition, ethics, and religion out of the conversation for the most part - considering only what effects various definitions of marriage would have on society and why a permanent, monogamous, heterosexual serves as the best ideal setting in which to raise kids. It was very interesting.
What I mostly got out of it is that society has an interest in not letting society fall apart. As an organism, society has an interest in self-preservation. As a unit, society wants to continue to function, and to do so smoothly. Crime and poverty are disruptive to society. Criminals and the very poor are like auto parts that, instead of helping the car run optimally, add only dead weight or even directly sabotage the machine. It would clearly be great if there were less crime and poverty in the United States.
There are several factors that lead to poverty and to criminal behavior, which I believe are also linked to each other. At least one of those factors is the upbringing of those who eventually fall into poverty and/or turn to a life of crime. Studies show that some types of households and family relationships are less likely to produce criminals than others, and monogamous, heterosexual relationships have a better track record than unfaithful, single-parent, or same-sex-relationship families. Basically, a child is more likely to become an upstanding citizen if they're raised by a loving mother and a loving father. If either of those two parents are absent, that child is going to have a harder time in society, even if the missing mother or father is replaced by a second father or a second mother. Surely, having same-sex parents is better than having no parents at all. It's probably also better than only having one parent, though I haven't heard of many studies comparing those scenarios. But a loving, faithful, heterosexual couple is statistically probably to be better parents than same-sex couples, in terms of whether their kids end up being beneficial or detrimental to society.
As a person who believes, for religious reasons, that heterosexual couples are more favorable than same-sex couples, but who doesn't want to cram his religion down other people's throats, and as a person who believes that new ideas are sometimes (though not always) just as good, if not better than old ideas, I was glad to hear a non-religious, non-traditionalist argument in favor of traditional, god-sanctioned marriage between a man and a woman. Essentially, it'll be better for America. There will be less crime and poverty, fewer broken homes, and generally more stability and happiness in our society.
Now, I don't want to put words into Mr. Anderson's mouth. That was my non-traditionalist, non-religious argument in favor of heterosexual marriage. If you want to hear his thoughts on the subject (and have an hour of time to spare), I'll include a link here.
To throw an inspirational thought onto this political argument, this just goes to show that God know what He's talking about. He knows what's best for His children, for society as a whole. He knows what will bring the most happiness, and He encourages us to support those things. He also knows what's not good for us or for our society, and He has asked us to stand against those things. I don't want to be discriminatory or bigoted, but I have faith that God wants all of us to be happy, that He knows what will contribute to or detract from our happiness, and that His commandments are given for the express purpose of improving our happiness. I want people to be happy, too, and normally that would lead me to allow people to pursue happiness however they choose. But God knows what's best for our happiness better than we do. If God says we'd all be happier keeping His commandments than breaking them, and I truly believe that, then I, too, should discourage people from breaking the commandments, even if they think that breaking God's commandments is what will make them happy.
I'm sure that a lot of people disagree with me on this topic, but I have to stand by my beliefs and by evidence that's shown by society as a whole, especially when those two things agree. And right now, they're both saying that traditional marriages are better for children, the backbone of society, than non-traditional ones.
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