Get Ready For a Big Debate: What Is A Family?

Do you want a prediction? I predict the United States is on the front edge of one of the most divisive debates this nation has seen since the Civil War. Now, that's a pretty big statement, but I believe it is true, and the debate is going to be over one simple question: what is a family? Historically, the legal meaning of marriage has been the union of one man and one woman. From this union children could be expected, and this concept is totally embedded in the law of our land at all levels. In the history of America, the family is generally considered the core unit of our total organization. There are religious overtones, of course, but there is much more, and it is in the "much more" area that I expect this debate to be immense.

The reason this debate about family is coming front and center is because of several things that have happened recently. We have been seeing more and more news stories the past few years about gay and lesbian rights, which have become a basic tenet of liberal thinking. But to a large degree these stories left this issue of family in the political arena of liberal versus conservative. It was still a debate, even though a number of businesses have agreed to give gay and lesbian couples the same rights as a married man and woman. But just recently Canada gave homosexual couples the same family rights as traditional families. And here in the summer of 2003 the United States Supreme Court issued a ruling that many jurists believe will lead to state approval of same sex marriages. Cases are already pending in New Jersey and Massachusetts that may take the issue right back to the Supreme Court, and the states from which these cases are coming should tell you something.

I am a conservative. I accept that. But I strongly believe the best hope for America is to rebuild two-parent families ... meaning one man and one woman and their offspring. And for those of you who feel the same way, it seems to me the time is now for you to get off the bench and in the political ballgame. We are on the front edge of a massive American decision.

This is Gordon Sawyer, and may the wind always be at your back.