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OP-ED: Marriage tradition needs adherence

Published: Thursday, March 4, 2010

Updated: Thursday, March 4, 2010

A nation is nothing more than its people.

This nation is experiencing extreme inner torment and conflict at this time. To find the problem, perhaps we should examine the people.

Fifty-ninth General Assembly of the U.N., in a press release titled “Governments Reaffirm Critical Importance of Family to Society”: “The Family is the most important unit of society.”

If this is true, as the whole of the world’s leaders attest, than perhaps our ailment lies therein.

Winston Churchill: “Where does the family start? It starts with a young man falling in love with a girl - no superior alternative has yet been found.”

Herein lays our distress. The degradation of the core family unit in society is being heralded from all angles. Psychology has shown the adverse affects it has on both the individual happiness of adults as well as the development of children in (A) cohabiting relationships, (B) single-parent homes, and (C) same-sex relationships. Further, high divorce rates are a disappointingly crucial contributor to moral and mental instability for adults and children.

There are almost always exceptions to a rule. Many children and couples have found happiness in the above mentioned instabilities, but exceptions are not the rules.

Winston Churchill: “There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human society, are created, strengthened and maintained.”

Aristotle: “All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.”

Elias Boudinot: “Good government generally begins in the family, and if the moral character of a people once degenerate, their political character must soon follow.”

As mentioned before, this country was founded upon certain morals, values, and principles. If we attempt to remove the most important unit in society, the family, through neglecting its proper value in the nation, then we will see a cataclysmic downturn in this country’s productivity, freedom, justice, moral and ethical codes, respect, and original purpose.
If this nation is to ever retain and re-obtain the peace that it was designed to foster, actions by the PEOPLE of this country must be taken to sustain and defend the “most important unit of society.”

What can be done? I believe that those of us who wish to keep the strong foundation of loving, educational families are the vast majority of this nation’s people. You’re not alone; rally together with dignified peace. Reject all degrading trends and influences that are attempting to nullify the family. Remember what Aristotle said and teach your offspring tolerance and love, with all other correct moral principles this country was fabricated with. We, the people, constitute this nation, and we determine its strength and health.

I speak as the protagonist to moral, loving families, not as the antagonist to the alternatives.

If you destroy the people (families) you destroy the country.

Sterling Whipple is a sophomore undeclared major from Delta. He can be reached at tennisfreak2006@gmail.com.

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16 comments

Anonymous
Tue Mar 9 2010 19:38
So........ everyone is mad that Aristotle and Churchill are republicans? I dont get the conversation.
Anonymous
Mon Mar 8 2010 17:33
Which marry tradition? Coverture? Biblical Polygamy? Traditions EXCLUDING interracial couples from marriage prior to 1967? How and who gets to determine which snapshot of history one calls "tradition?"
Fact vs. Bigotry
Sat Mar 6 2010 19:37
I see, facts don't matter... any opinion will do when it comes to a fundamental right to marry.
Anonymous
Sat Mar 6 2010 19:15
Science does not know everything, sometimes we have to trust our beliefs, and opinions. And vote accordingly, that is why we live in a democracy where can determine for ourselves what is best for society, not some silly peer reviewed or whatever, psychological study.
Anonymous
Fri Mar 5 2010 21:11
IN regards to your claims about psychology: Actually, all peer reviewed psychological studies I have seen show that gay couples are just as fit (if not more fit) to raise a child as heterosexual couples. I urge you to do the research and see for yourself.
Whiney
Fri Mar 5 2010 05:51
You commenters all sound like spoiled whiney kids that can't take no for an answer.

"But why mommy why?"

Someone needs to tell all of you that leaders much wiser that all of you have already decided, the thinking has been done.

Just Wondering Sterling,
Fri Mar 5 2010 00:39
Which Marriage Tradition are you talking about? How about Joseph Smith marrying girls as young as 14 years old (Helen Mar Kimball) or Joseph Smith marrying other men’s wives (Polyandry) or many multiple wives (Polygamy)? All can be verified on familysearch,org.

Sterling wouldn’t you think adherents in the only true church following a Prophet of God would have a much lower divorce rate? But according to the CDC, Utah’s divorce rates run slightly higher than the national average.

According to the Utah Health department Utah ranks 7th in the nation for suicide. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for Utah males ages 10-44.

Utah has the highest use of antidepressants in the nation.

With 60-70 percent of Utah being LDS might one conclude the LDS family has some serious problems?

Just Wondering Sterling,
Fri Mar 5 2010 00:08
Which Marriage Tradition are you talking about? How about Joseph Smith marrying girls as young as 14 years old (Helen Mar Kimball) or Joseph Smith marrying other men’s wives (Polyandry) or many multiple wives (Polygamy)? All can be verified on familysearch,org.

Sterling wouldn’t you think adherents in the only true church following a Prophet of God would have a much lower divorce rate? But according to the CDC, Utah’s divorce rates run slightly higher than the national average.

According to the Utah Health department Utah ranks 7th in the nation for suicide. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for Utah males ages 10-44.

Utah has the highest use of antidepressants in the nation.

With 60-70 percent of Utah being LDS might one conclude the LDS family has some serious problems?

Anonymous
Thu Mar 4 2010 23:36
Some facts to chew on....
“The Supreme Court cases discussing the right to marry do not define the right those cases as a subset of the right to marry depending on the factual context in which the issue presented itself. For example, Loving addressed marriage; not interracial or opposite-race marriage. Turner v. Safley discusses marriage; not marriage involving inmates in penal institutions.”

The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly described the right to marriage as “one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men”; a “basic civil right”; a component of the constitutional rights to liberty, privacy, association, and intimate choice; an expression of emotional support and public commitment; the exercise of spiritual unity; and a fulfillment of one’s self.

Loving v. Virginia (1967) (“The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.”); see also id. (“Marriage is one of the ‘basic civil rights of man,’ fundamental to our very existence and survival.”) U.S. 535, 541 (1942).

Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 399 (The right “to marry, establish a home and bring up children” is a central part of the liberty protected by the Due Process Clause). (“[Th]e right to marry is part of the fundamental ‘right of privacy’ implicit in the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause”).

Good parenting is not based on gender, what is in the heart of the parent...

I love QSA
Thu Mar 4 2010 18:07
Sterling, why don't you attend a QSA meeting, and express your views and have an open and honest dialog?
Fact vs. Bigotry
Thu Mar 4 2010 17:00
Sterling, do you know the difference between fact and opinion? Seriously just curious.... You don't have to of course.
Anonymous
Thu Mar 4 2010 16:35
The California Attorney General admits that an individual’s capacity to raise children does not depend on the individual’s sexual orientation and that “this proposition is implicitly recognized in the law in the State of California.
Anonymous
Thu Mar 4 2010 16:21
The American Academy of Pediatrics recognizes that a considerable body of professional literature provides evidence that children with parents who are homosexual can have the same advantages and the same expectations for health, adjustment, and development as can children whose parents are heterosexual.
Divorce
Thu Mar 4 2010 15:28
Sterling, Massachusetts has the lowest divorce rate in the U.S.

If low divorce rates are a good thin, should we ask ow has homosexual marriage impacted this divorce rate if any?

Benjamin King Smith
Thu Mar 4 2010 15:20
Um... Just a random question. You say Psychology says that your A B and C relationships are harmful to kids... And then say that one of the worst things that can happen to a child is divorce. First of all I'd love to see your numbers, if you have any. But I guess the main question I have is, do you have any actual facts saying that Homosexual relationships are bad, or is it all just anecdotal. If you'd like some facts to contradict your claims, please feel free to e-mail me at suuqsa@gmail.com, but as far as I can tell you're choosing to make claims that have no basis in reality.

Being an open minded individual as I am, I would love to hear any actual case against gay marriage you may have. A case founded in logic, and facts, not homophobia.

LIke the other commentator to your op-ed speech said, you are for sure allowed your own opinion. But you are surly not allowed your own facts. And just a little point of clarification, quoting random people does not constitute fact. Especially when quoted out of context.

Just The Facts
Thu Mar 4 2010 15:10
Sterling, you defineately have a right to your own opinion, but not your own set of facts.
David Blankenhorn, [Testified for the SUPPORTERS of Prop 8] wrote in "The Future of Marriage: A seminar coconvened and chaired by Blankenhorn" assembled a list of 23 “Positive
Consequences” of allowing same-sex couples to marry: (1) meeting the stated
needs and desires of gays and lesbians, (2) extending the benefits of marriage
to gays and lesbians, (3) more gay and lesbian people choosing to enter
committed relationships, (4) more stability and longer-lasting relationships for
same-sex couples, (5) less sexual promiscuity, (6) greater acceptance of
homosexual love and intimacy, (7) “a victory for the worthy ideas of tolerance
and inclusion,” and “a victory for, and another key expansion of, the American
idea,” (8) reaffirmation of society’s commitment to social justice, (9)
expanding the concept of human rights, (10) decline in anti-gay prejudice and
hate-crimes, (11) increased wealth-accumulation and higher living standards
for gays and lesbians, (12) making marriage more universally accessible, (13)
demonstration that marriage can be an adaptive social form, (14) decline of
“marriage lite” schemes such as civil unions, which can harmfully blur the
distinction between marriage and non-marriage, (15) reduced number of gays
and lesbians unhappily marrying people of the opposite sex, (16) reduced
number of younger Americans who believe that marriage is an outdated and
discriminatory institution, (17) increased birth rate, (18) more children growing
up in loving adoptive foster-families, (19) valuable national discussion of
marriage’s benefits, (20) end to today’s socially divisive and distracting debate
over gay marriage, (21) reduction in gender stereotypes, (22) new scholarly
research on a variety of topics related to marriage and parenting, and (23)
valuable local experimentation in matters of marriage and marriage law).






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