"Have you ever been in a discussion about marriage and not known how to explain it in non-religious terms? Have you ever had conversations around the Thanksgiving dinner table with extended family members and heard all kinds of opinions about the purpose of marriage and who should be allowed to marry?
|
|
If you have children or grandchildren, have you struggled to answer the tough questions that they bring home from school? Have you ever had difficulty explaining the difference between civil and religious marriage or why the government should be in the business of sanctioning marriages at all? Perhaps you too have some unanswered questions about marriage."
Thus reads the opening paragraph in, Getting the Marriage Conversation Right, a guide for effective dialogue.
Whomever asks the questions, directs the discussion. There are important question that need to be asked and must be answered:
- Do we need an institution that unites kids with their moms and dad? Yes or no?
- Do children have a right to know and, as far as possible, be cared for by their moms and dads?
- Does anyone have the right to create children with the intention of depriving them of their mother or father or both?
- Should we have laws and curricula in schools that promote men and women marrying before having children?
Do you know?
- The facts about the breakdown of marriage? For example:
- 41% children are born to unmarried mothers
- Marriage rate down 45% since 1980
- 71% of poor families are not married
- The only institution that unites kids with their moms and dads has been eliminated in states across the country, and in the District of Columbia. (See update)
Considering the consequences of the breakdown of marriage, the question everyone should be asking is:
"Do we need an institution that united kids with their moms and dads? Yes or no?
If "YES", that institution is marriage between a man and a woman.
If "NO", then why not?
,
