Marriage Under Fire: Part 2
[This entry continues my review and analysis of the book Marriage Under Fire by James Dobson. I should preface this with the fact that part 2 focuses on a section of one chapter of the book, and not the work in its entirety. Future analysis may be more general and less focused on details that make up the argument. There are still more arguments to be considered.]
Marriage Under Fire begins with God's creation of marriage. It is the finest of His creations in the eyes of the author. Dobson talks about the human instinct for bonding with another person, as well as discusses the ramifications of gay marriage-like relationships in Norway.
The argument has been made before that civilization is founded on marriage, and James Dobson makes the same argument. He states that "God announced the ordination of the family long before he established the two other great human institutions, the church and the government." (pg 7) While this may be scripturally true, I thought that there were other important things that civilization was founded upon - things like freedom, democracy, and inherent human rights. He argues that among heterosexual men and women there is a desire to leave their parents and "cleave" unto one another. This is not in dispute, but the fact is that many gay and lesbian people also desire to leave their parents and be in a relationship with another person.
There are many reasons for this need to be with someone. Dobson says that while people marry for purposes of reproduction, there is also another "mystical" reason for bonding. That is an "irrepressible longing for companionship, intimacy, and spiritual bonding." (pg 8) Indeed there is more to marriage than reproduction. It is a desire to share oneself with another human being, to love and by loved by someone, and be there through life's journey together. That desire is the same for straight and gay couples. Why should there be a difference in relationship recognition if the basic relationships themselves are the same?
Dobson continues with his argument that in countries that where marriage-like relationships exist for gay and lesbian people, marriage has been decimated. Here he uses statements by Stanley Kurtz that insinuate that laws in Norway create "gay marriage" when in fact they create marriage-like relationships. (Kurtz also wrote once that gay marriage is the predecessor to polygamy.) (1) It is true that there are fewer marriages as of 1997, but that trend has existed at least since 1970, well before the concept of gay marriage was introduced. Yes, divorces are higher now, but again that has been the trend since 1970. Between 1992 and 2002 the difference in number of divorces is 344 more divorces in 2002 (2). This follows a trend that has been in existence for over 30 years. Norway's gay partnership law went into effect in 1993, and mind you it is still not marriage. He relies on information that shows a correlation not causation (3). For instance, one could correlate the higher number of divorces in Norway to lower rates of smoking. Not exactly a cause and effect relationship. Meanwhile in the United States the divorce rate has been on the increase (and marriage on the decrease) since 1960. (4) Creative juxtaposition of facts doesn’t always make a good argument.
It seems that gay and straight people have some things in common when it comes to wanting relationships. It also appears that the institution of marriage has had some issues over the past century that are non-related to gay marriage. Perhaps if we could focus more on what we have in common, then we could get to the more real issues threatening marriage and the family in America.
(1) Kurtz, Stanley. "Beyond Gay Marriage." The Weekly Standard. 45 Aug. 2003. http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/938xpsxy.asp.
(2) Statbank Norway. http://statbank.ssb.no/statistikkbanken/default_fr.asp?PLanguage=1.
(3) Carpenter, Dale. "Are Gays Wrecking Marriage in Scandinavia?" Bay Area Reporter. Feb. 5, 2004. Rpt. in Independent Gay Forum. http://www.indegayforum.org/authors/carpenter/carpenter40.html.
(4) Census Questionnaire Content, 1990 CQC-6. Bureau of the Census. http://www.census.gov/apsd/cqc/cqc6.pdf.
