Recently, due to a debate about the legislation against homosexual marriage that was on going on my friend Drew’s website, I picked up a book that related to the topic. It’s called “Defending Traditional Marriage“ by Willard F. Harley, Jr.

Interestingly enough, the book isn’t so much about homosexual marriage as it is about the deterioration of marriage in society already, and how this deterioration affects the children of the marriage.

In fact, Harley asserts that the primary goal of marriage is to raise healthy (physically and emotionally) children in an environment of safety and security.

I’ve only read the intro the the book so far, but going forward it is important to note the defination of “Traditional Marriage” by Harley (taken from traditional wedding vows) as: “a permanent (as long as you both shall live) and sexually exclusive (forsaking all others) relationship of extraodinary care (love, comfort, honor, and keep, etc.) between a man (to be your husband) and a woman (to be your wife).”

Harley states, “In this book I’ll describe how our culture, state legislatures, and the courts no longer support the type of marriage that provides children with the safety and security they need. I’ll show how they’ve eliminated the permanence of marriage by creating laws that encourage divorce. And I’ll explain how they’ve undermined the sexual exclusivity of marriage by creating laws that encourage infidelity (14).”

“With the values of permanence and sexual exclusivity removed, the battle is not raging over why we should keep marriage between man and a woman. Marriage is slowly turning into little mor than a temporary and promiscuous relationship between any two (or more in some cases) people–and children are the ultimate victims of this ‘evolution’ (14).”

The fact that Harley points out the deterioration already present in society, and that the debate over homosexual marriage is just the next step, is very relevant to the discussion at hand. I’m greatly interested in how Harley builds his argument from here….

I’m not sure if I’m going to agree with Mr. Harley’s presuppositions, but I’ve skimmed around a little bit and liked a few things he states.

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