Ross Douthat has a good column in the New York Times about the bad arguments pro-traditional marriage advocates make (it is ‘natural’ and ‘marriage has always been between one man and one woman’) which are patently false and why social conservatives are losing the same-sex marriage debate using those arguments. The good argument is precisely that marriage is not natural, but creates a unique and enriching environment to create and raise children. We are at risk of losing that sense of uniqueness (easy divorce, serial monogamy which is really a form of polygamy) that makes traditional marriage — that is Eurocentric, Judeo-Christian marriage — “worthy of distinctive recognition and support.” Douthat calls marriage both a “microcosm of civilization” and “one of the great ideas of Western civilization” but says we are giving up on that idea and its “potential fruit.” Worth reading even if it will be challenging to many social conservatives.
