Defending marriage: Will Senate Republicans display courage and uphold truth?
Story Highlights
House Republicans announced plans to pass a joint resolution condemning gay marriage this week. The Senate, however, is planning to move a similar bill quickly to avoid gridlock.
But will any members of Congress have the courage to challenge the government�s policy of marriage over the objections of their party? We think there could be.
On the surface, the Republican opposition has merit: A majority of Americans, including a substantial number of Republicans, believe that gay couples should be able to marry.
The Republican Party, however, should not base its opposition to gay marriage on the idea that marriage is a bad thing. As the philosopher John Stuart Mill observed, it was bad for society when people stopped marrying and when people couldn�t marry.
And as the author Thomas E. Woods wrote in 1937 in The Meaning of Marriage:
Marriage was made for each other, and only the state has been endowed with the right to forbid it. It is the sole right of the husband to demand the submission of his wife to his will, and the sole right of the wife to resist. The right to marry is the right of every healthy and sane person, and the right to divorce, not only where the wife would be subjected to indignities, but even where it might result in a scandal, or deprive her of the freedom to go where she will and do what she likes.
We also believe that the decision whether to allow gay couples to marry is a political question, not a moral one. Although public opinion is often divided between the views of voters and politicians, voters rarely make the right decision when it comes to public policy. Even when the American Civil Liberties Union and polls show that voters are on the side of marriage, politicians will often find a way to change public opinion.
The fact is that gay marriage does not violate any religious beliefs or values – religious principles will have time to evolve and adapt based on time and experience, and moral values evolve over time.
That doesn