(1) What is your authority for your claim that social research shows that adults in heterosexual marriages do better than adults in stable homosexual relationships?
(2) What is your authority for the claim that children do better in "traditional marriage" families (apart from government benefits that are denied non-traditional families)? (3) I don't understand your point about broken marriages (or marriages that end with the death of a spouse). What does that have to do with same-sex marriages? (4) If in fact you are right about (1) and (2) then, as somebody else asked, shouldn't we remove children from one-parent households and place them in two-parent households? -----Original Message----- From: Gene Summerlin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, June 04, 2004 1:40 PM To: 'Law & Religion issues for Law Academics' Subject: RE: Religion Clauses question Bob, Your point is valid, so let me try to answer the question of why should the government care? If we separate the sacrimental value of marriage from the legal aspects of marriage, we can agree that if a church or other entity wishes to "marry" same sex partners, the church is free to do so. But, because the same sex marriage does not meet the legal definition of marriage, the same-sex partners are not entitled to the legal benefits of marriage. The question really becomes why does/can/should the state provide incentives to some couples to marry (in the legal sense) and withhold those benefits from other couples? Social research indicates that adults in heterosexual marriages do better than single, divorced or cohabitating couples in virtually every measure of well-being. Heterosexual married couples live longer, express a higher degree of satisfaction with life, enjoy higher levels of physical and mental health, recover from illness quicker, earn and save more money, are more reliable employees, suffer less stress, and are less likely to become victims of any kind of violence. As mentioned in an earlier post, children residing in intact heterosexual marriages also gain a number of advantages over peers in other living arrangements. On the other side of the coin, there is a significant social cost to care for and treat the problems associated with broken marriages. That is, to the extent that people and children chose (or are forced) into non-heterosexual marriage living arrangements, they are more likely to have health problems, economic problems, abuse issues, etc. Society ultimately pays a financial price to treat and attempt to remedy these issues. By enacting policies which promote heterosexual marriages, the state preserves resources which would otherwise be spent on social welfare programs. Therefore, the state provides economic incentives to encourage people to form the type of family unit that best utilizes the state's resources. _______________________________________________ To post, send message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw _______________________________________________ To post, send message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw
