A Divergence of Two Compassions: Redefining marriage will ultimately destroy it, by Gary Christian.

Marriage predates civilisation and particularly the emergence of the state, making marriage neither the state’s invention nor its plaything, yet in the last fifty years it has presumed to redefine it.

With the ascendancy of the sexual revolution’s alternatively-conceived “marriage” destroying the central focus of that multi-millennial consensus, the primacy of children’s welfare has been trumped by a very different primacy, the gratification of adults’ sexual and emotional desires. …

Across all eras and societies marriage has been firmly defined by the act of human procreation — as attested by the many cultures with arranged marriages — rather than by romantic attachment, important as it is. … Marriage cannot become inclusive of same-sex couples without losing its meaning. …

There is nothing intrinsic within romance demanding permanence and exclusivity — emotions come and go — emptying the word marriage of any content. Freed of the internal child-centred drivers for “till death us do part” and “forsaking all others”, marriage becomes an empty edifice, a shell of its true meaning.

Those US states which have enacted gay marriage have already seen the increasing abandonment of marriage by heterosexuals; despite marriage rates in other states remaining stable, Vermont has seen declines of 5.1 per cent, Connecticut 7.3 per cent, Massachusetts 8.9 per cent and Iowa 9.2 per cent. When marriage has been rendered meaningless, it is predictable that couples will back away.

A thoughtful article. Read it all.

hat-tip Stephen Neil