Here are some examples of the debate I outlined yesterday. On one hand, Tony Perkins uses a “slippery slope” approach and points out the logical consequences of opening the door to gay marriage. He then moves smoothly into a “bad for the children” argument:
If we can change the opposite-sex requirement for marriage, why can’t we change the two-person requirement as well? How, and more importantly, why would we deny the civil right to marry to those who choose polygamous or polyamorous (group) marriages? The answer is we could not. Marriage is not simply a private institution. It is a public institution with public consequences. The reason the government regulates marriage as opposed to other private relationships is that marriage usually involves the raising of children. Children don’t just need two parents; they also need a mother and father. We hear a lot of talk in this debate about the right of adults to marry whomever they want. What about the right of a child to a mother and father? If we legalize same-sex marriage far and wide, it will be the first time in law we are intentionally denying children that very basic right.
On the other hand, U.S. News published a glowing anecdotal story about all the (supposedly) well-adjusted and happy children of gay parents being raised all over the country:
Gay parents say their families are much like those led by their straight counterparts. “I just say I have two moms,” says Madison, explaining how she tells friends about her parents (whom she refers to as “Mom” and “Mamma Sheri” ). “They’re no different from other parents except that they’re two girls. It’s not like comparing two parents with two trees. It’s comparing two parents with two other parents.”
Now I happen to believe that legalizing homosexual marriage will open the door to condoning other forms of sexual union and I am convinced that it is better for children to have a mother and a father, no matter what ten people in a U.S. News story say, but these facts are not the reasons gay marriage is wrong. They are simply consequences of the objective wrongness of homosexuality. And the objective standard on which that judgment is based is God. God made the universe and he made humans to interact in sexual relationship with each other. However, He made them to interact with members of the opposite sex. Nothing we say, feel, or “choose for ourselves” will change that fact. That is the bottom line in this debate.