The family is the most basic and ancient of all
institutions, and it remains the fundamental
social unit in every society. Yet there are many
people today who predict the end of the family
system as we know it. The family, it is contended,
is breaking down, the victim of moral decay,
sexual permissiveness, changing gender roles, or
social forces.

Such predictions are heard in all industrialised societies.
We now have both men and women begin sexual activity
before marriage. One in every five births is to an
unmarried mother, usually a teenager. One in every four
pregnancies ends in abortion. The number of unmarried couples
living together has tripled in less than two decades.
People are staying single longer than ever, and more than
one adult in five now lives alone.

About half of all marriages are expected to end in divorce.
New alternatives to traditional marriage, such as the
single-parent household are becoming steadily more common.
And to complicate matters further, children can now be
conceived through artificial means, sometimes in a
laboratory dish.

What this means is that today we have an immense range in
marriage, family, and kinship patterns. That family and
marriage, like any other institution, has changed
through time in our society, as in all others.

Much of the current concern about the fate of modern
marriage stems from the assumption that there is only
one "right" marriage form. So naturally any change to
the institution of marriage is branded as heralding the
doom of the whole institution. Mixed inter-religious
and racial marrianges were
seen in the same light a few decades ago - yet today
they are perfectly acceptable. In ancient times one
wasn't allowed to marry outside their own village or
outside one's own country. Times do change. The same
will apply with same sex marriages - sometime in the future
we shall all wonder what all this fuss was all about.

Lexi,
No we won't stop wondering what all the fuss was about! We are concerned because of all the welfare and counselling that is in place now for breakdowns in normal family life. Society cannot just accept fractured family life as it shows injustice, hurt and anger. Just attend your local school and see the dysfunction of family life influences on children. There is no greater security for a child than a united loving mother and father.

Do not give us the nonsence that everythig is normal and acceptable, when it is clearly fractured. Talk to your local primary school teachers.

Dear Josephus,

You ignore the evidence. There have been same sex marriages. There have been marriage of one man having several wives and one woman having several husbands. There is absolutely no evidence that children in those marriages are any worse off than children from a one man - one woman marriage. If you accept the Bible as authoritative (I don't, but I think you do.) Jacob, Solomon and other notables are products of polygamy.

New Testament fairy tales are not a reliable guide for human behaviour.

Dear Josephus,

Problems in relationships are not only confined
to a certain group of people - they occur to all human beings.
However what we are discussing here is allowing same-sex
couples to marry. A child will do well if he/she is loved
and grows up in a loving home. That love and home is not just
restricted to only certain people and homes.

I realise that some people view their own patterns of
marriage, family, and kinship as self-evidently right and
proper, and usually as God-given as well. Therefore if
one assumes that there is only one "right" marriage and
family form, then naturally as I stated earlier any change
will be interpreted as heralding the doom of the whole
institution.

Once again I will say that it is important to recognise,
that there is an immense range in marriage, family, and
kinship patterns; that each of these patterns may be, at
least in their own context, perfectly viable; and above all,
that the family, and marriage, like any other social
institution, must inevitably change through time, in our
own society as in all others.

Josephus.

Gay couples are not banging on church doors demanding that Fr.Fryemup marry them before his precious alter. Remember no one is legally married unless the state says so, nothing to do with the church, the only legal proof of a marriage in Australia is the state awarded marriage certificate. All that same sex couples are asking for is the same rights as heterosexual couples, the awarding of a state marriage certificate. I assure you, if this is done the sky will not fall in as the religious would have us believe.
The moralistic views of christians or any other religious groupings should not be allowed to influence the law of the land.

Paul1405,
So I take it you would allow anyone to marry including siblings.