had a interesting conversation today at lunch at the local rotary club with some community leaders. and the thread of dealing with the growing issue of broken families and its impact on a local community was in all of it.
it reminded me of this quote from a smart dude, robert george on marriage. it was part of an interview on national review online a few months ago. the whole interview entiled “sex and the empire state” is worth printing out and reflecting on along with the larger project from an article in the harvard journal of law that spurred the interview.
Marriage is a profound human and social good; its weakening and loss is a tragedy from which affluent people can be distracted (and protected) by their affluence for only so long. The institution of marriage has already been deeply wounded by divorce at nearly plague levels, widespread non-marital sexual cohabitation, and other damaging factors. To redefine it out of existence in law is to make it much more difficult to restore a sound understanding of marriage on which a healthy marriage culture can be rebuilt for the good of all. It is to sacrifice the needs of the poor, who are hurt the most when a sound public understanding of marriage and sexual morality collapses. It is to give up on the truth that children need both a father and mother, and benefit from the security of their love for each other.
—Interview with Robert George by Kathryn Jean Lopez, editor-at-large of National Review Online.