Sarah Hamaker
June 23, 2011
The Christian Post
The Family Research Council has fired another salvo in the debate on legalizing same-sex marriage with the release of a new documentary that details the harm same-sex marriage can inflict upon a society.
“The Problem with Same-Sex Marriage: How It Will Affect You and Your Children” brings in marriage, family and homosexual experts to talk about what happens when marriage is redefined.
“This DVD answers the question, How same-sex marriage would affect society, in particularly how it would affect children,” says Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies at the Washington, D.C.-based FRC.
While some Christians might think same-sex marriage would not infringe upon their personal lives, the documentary shows just how the legalization of homosexual marriage would hurt everyone.
“Some immediate harms involve a loss of freedom for people who disapprove of homosexuality, and the threat to religious liberty for religious nonprofit groups, such as Christian adoption agencies,” says Sprigg.
Also, businesses and governments would be forced to provide benefits to same-sex married couples. The harms extend to the must vulnerable in our society – our children. Legalization of same-sex marriage would mean schoolchildren would be indoctrinated to support homosexuality – something that’s already begun in states that recognize same-sex marriage. One Massachusetts family interviewed for the documentary talk about how their kindergarten son brought home a children’s book from school that advocated homosexual marriage.
Other changes same-sex marriage would bring about would be modifications in family structure.
“Because marriage exists to encourage a traditional family structure, redefining it would mean that fewer children would be raised by a married mother and father, more children would grow up fatherless and birth rates would fall – that’s our prediction if same-sex marriage becomes legal in all 50 states,” says Sprigg.
A further set of harms relates to the nature of homosexual relationships.
“Because homosexuals are less likely to enter a committed relationship, less likely to be sexually faithful, and less likely to remain committed for a lifetime, we believe that those behaviors would spread to the heterosexual community if same-sex marriage is legalized and you would see fewer marriages, fewer people being monogamous and faithful, and fewer people remaining married for a lifetime,” he says.
The final reason same-sex marriage would not be good for America is that it could mark the beginning of a slippery slope toward other redefinitions of marriage, such as the legalization of polygamy.
“If we can’t limit a person’s choice of marriage partners based on gender, why should we limit the number of marriage partners?” says Sprigg.
“The Problem with Same-sex Marriage” will be broadcast on a number of Christian television networks in the fall. FRC is also heavily promoting it to churches, hoping that pastors will use it to educate and mobilize their congregations on this issue.
The film’s true stories of people who have had their freedom of speech and religious liberties violated as a result of same-sex marriage brings the issue home because “these are real-life stories, not hypothetical situations,” says Sprigg.
Additionally, FRC has sent DVDs to New York to help block passage of a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in the Empire State. The Senate had not put the measure on the agenda, which means the legislative session could end without a vote on the issue.
Earlier this year, President Barack Obama asked the Department of Justice to cease defending the Defense of Marriage Act against lawsuits that test its constitutionality. The 1996 law bans federal acknowledgment of same-sex marriage. Since 2010, six places have allowed same-sex marriages: Washington, D.C., Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Iowa and Connecticut.
The documentary calls on viewers to defend traditional marriage by either opposing their state’s attempt to legalize same-sex marriage or by supporting their state in amending its constitution to add the traditional definition of marriage.
Thus far, 30 states have defined marriage as between one man and one woman by amending their constitutions. Only Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York and Rhode Island have no statutes or constitutional provisions banning same-sex marriage. However, the high courts in Connecticut, Iowa and Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage, while New Hampshire and Vermont legalized same-sex marriage through legislation.
“The advocates of same-sex marriage say, ‘what harm could it do?’ And they think the answer is, obviously, nothing,” says Sprigg. “This documentary is our response to that challenge by outlining what harm same-sex marriage will actually do.”
The documentary can be ordered by visiting frc.org/marriage.