Vox Clara

The family unit is the cornerstone of our society...Yes, we must support families as they exist today, but to pretend that a single mother household is equally desirable to a traditional (husband and wife) household is lunacy.

Suppose that the father is a hardened wife abuser. Is it still preferrable?

Certainly, there are extreme cases where divorce is the best option, but they are in the small minority.

Who should decide what is best?

By supporting the traditional family unit, I am not suggesting that, as a society, we cling to some traditional family model that harkens back to a fantasy of how things used to be, but that we simply recognize a sociological fact: the common good is furthered by a strong family unit headed by a married male and female.

Really? The world's population does not seem to need any encouragement.What is the "common good"? This sounds very communistic.

Marriage is ontologically between a man and a woman, ordered toward the union of the two distinct sexes, always open to procreation, and forming the foundation of the family.

This is pedantic. The meanings of words can change. The whole gay marriage issue arose because conservatives want to give people in heterosexual relationships a tax break. If tax law did not discriminate against unmarried individuals, it is doubtful that anyone would care. Homosexuals would gladly acquire the name "civil union". They just want legal recognition of their fidelity to each other. Surely you can see that caring and fidelity are the more important aspects of "marriage" than sex and should be allowed tax benediction as civil unions. (That is if you believe that government should be promoting certain lifestyles.)

Married men and women ensure the succession of human generations and of human society in that they can create new human life in the act proper to them, the conjugal act. In this act, they literally become "one flesh,” with the husband giving himself to his wife, and she receiving him.

Again, does procreation need any encouragement. The survey says "no".

By so ensuring the survival of society, married men and women provide an indispensable service to the common good. The sex acts of homosexual couples simply cannot do this.

It may easily be argued that married couples hurt the common good in as much as they increase the population and deplete finite resources. Individuals should only be concerned about public policy to the extent that it impacts them. Seeing individuals who care for each other be together is clearly a "good" in my book.