When We Lose Traditional Marriage We’ll Lose a Lot

John Hayward at RedState writes on the unraveling of traditional marriage, sexual mores, and everything that goes along with them:

…three points stand as the essence of the Sex Wars: (1) sex between men and women is different than any other variety, because it produces children, (2) children generally prosper best when raised by their parents in marital unity; and (3) even without considering children, society functions better when sexual fidelity between men and women is valued highly.

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Whether or not same-sex couples can provide the same benefits to adopted children is beside the point, because this isn’t an argument for banning same-sex adoptions.  We’re talking about the whole of society here, millions of people.  The only way most children can be given the advantages of growing up in an intact family is to strongly encourage marriages between men and women to form, and endure.

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The sexual revolution … pulled a vital linchpin out of the social fabric, because most of the aftershocks he describes descend from refuting the idea that men and women should seek each other out for long-term relationships, which generally tend to carry the promise of children.  A society that strongly values this ideal has plenty of room for individuals who don’t accept the traditional ideal – that’s what “tolerance” is all about.  Tolerance does not require abandoning ideals.  It is possible to celebrate one thing without declaring the alternatives to be rubbish, although you wouldn’t know it from scrolling through the average Internet forum.

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What marriage conserves is either a bunch of trivial old hang-ups that empower judgmental prudes to attack lifestyles they frown upon, because they enjoy making other people feel bad… or the very foundation of an enduring and prosperous society.