Monday, October 13, 2008

Promoting a Restraint

I read an interesting comment about marriage the other day in the newspaper I thought was worth repeating. The person noted that many are referring to marriage as a right. In contrast, wrote the commentator, marriage is actually a restraint on men to stay with one woman. He continued to articulate that governement adopted this institution because of the many social ills that are prevented by restraining men to one woman. Men natually want to be with as many other partners as they can. He went on to list the many ways in which this arrangement served the society as a whole.

There is a great diference between tolerating and promoting. We can't and shouldn't force men to be with one woman. Or force man to be with a woman for that matter. Man is free to be with whomever he chooses. And we shouldn't have laws that unfairly restrict those who choose a non-traditional lifestyle (i.e. civil union and partnership laws bring these folks up to speed with regards to thier rights). We need a laws that tolerate this non-traditional behavior. However, laws can and should be in place to promote ideal relationships. Meaning, that those who choose to make personal sacrifices which benefit the society on the whole, should be rewarded. One example is having your charitable contributions tax-deductable. No one is forced to do this but the government promotes it. The restraint of staying with one woman is one of these behavioral choices that goes against the natural desire of man but serves all parties involved (the woman, the man, the children they have, and the society they live in) and should therefore be promoted.

Having laws that promote traditional marriage on the one hand and tolerate every other kind of relationship on the other, is what would serve America best. This is one of the reasons I am voting Yes on Prop. 8.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good Post! This is a huge issue. Personally, I don’t see Proposition 8 taking anything away from civil unions or partner laws. I see Proposition 8 as separate from the gay issue. It’s more about legal protection for those of us who would rather have private matters be private and who wish to preserve our own free speech and freedom of religion rights. This is the fight of our generation. We've got to pass the word along.

Heather said...

Very well stated. I especially like where you state that the civil unions bring the non-traditional relationships up to speed as far as benefits and rights go. Keep up the good work!