How Did Your Senators Vote on the Marriage Amendment?

Whether you agree or disagree with a Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriage is not really the question for this discussion. The main question is do you know how your senators voted? Next, is the question did they vote in a way that represented the will of the people in your state? Both of my senators, Mark Pryor and Blanche Lambert Lincoln cast “nay” votes according to the most recent Senate roll call vote. I found this curious since in 2004 voters in Arkansas overwhelming voted to ban same sex marriage in this state. In fairness, that doesn’t necessarily mean … Continue reading

New Jersey, Marriage, Rights, and Effects

Like you didn’t see this one coming… Since the New Jersey Supreme Court clearly (and correctly) stated that it found no fundamental right to gay marriage, it is rather curious that the Court would still demand that same sex couples be included in existing marriage laws or be given the same benefits as married couples through new legislation. If there is no fundamental right, how can the Court force the legislature to create a special statutory right that includes marriage benefits? Make no mistake; the New Jersey Supreme Court is indeed an activist court. While it may technically sidestep violating … Continue reading

Religious Marriage versus Civil Marriage

Good afternoon, I’m switching gears again here late in the day as I begin to wax philosophic on several key points related to the marriage debate that has been clawing up the headlines the last couple of months. I have to say, if the politics of the situation were distract people from the troubling issues of today – this has been a successful campaign. However, that being said, I like to throw in my two cents. In all likelihood, Sherry may respond to this blog and I’ll look forward to her thoughts on the matter. What I want to discuss … Continue reading

Common Law Marriages – Hold Onto Your Hats

Hold onto your hats folks, when this news bit came down the pipeline to my desk. In Colorado, the Court of Appeals ruled that a 15 year-old girl is old enough to be the common-law wife of a man more than twice her age. While I was a pretty mature 15 year-old, I am having a little trouble with this idea. The law is supposed to protect kids and teenagers – especially from impulsive rash decisions like announcing marriage to someone old enough to be her father. Now, legal experts are speculating that this ruling is opening the door to … Continue reading

When It Comes To Marriage

I have always said that it takes two people to make a marriage. It takes more than two to build a family and a whole lot of families to build a community. Our community here at families.com is comprised of a wide diversity of individuals coming together out of common interests whether they are related to family, marriage, hobbies, careers or more. To that end, our community here is one that I am quite proud to be a part of. I don’t necessarily agree with the thoughts or ideas that are expressed by every individual – but I fully support … Continue reading

A History of Marriage & Family

Yesterday I posted a discussion and my opinions on the Senate Vote and Marriage. I got a lot of responses to the blog that were thoughtful and filled with passionate conviction. Truth be told, subjects like marriage, family and more are deeply personal and they elicit from even the most uninterested I the subject a passionate viewpoint. The Demise of Family Values Interestingly enough, the worry about the changing family and the demise of the family unit is hardly a new concern. While challenges such as gay marriage may not have confronted American families in the late 1800s, the worries … Continue reading

Senate Votes & Marriage

Anytime the words senate vote and marriage come up in the same sentence, I get concerned. My concern is that I don’t want the government regulating my private life. I don’t want them legislating my choices either. However, the biggest issue I have with the marriage legislation is that it opens a potential can of worms that may cause far more problems and injuries to the nation than it protects values. The Value of Marriage I wrote a blog months ago that indicated that the greatest threat to marriage wasn’t same-gender marriages, but rather divorce. When our government focuses time, … Continue reading

In the News: Women Have Choices, Men Apparently Don’t

This is a difficult topic for me to write on and I ask for your patience as I try to explore it in all fairness. Today, I read an article about new legislation that was passed in the state of Michigan. House Bill 5882 puts into effect the Coercive Abortion Prevention Act. This law, for me, takes an ethically gray area and potentially explosive atmosphere and makes it a thousand times more dangerous. So what does this law do? The purpose of the law is to prevent and prohibit the putative father of a pregnant woman’s baby from intimidating or … Continue reading

Is It News? Trailblazers Separate in Massachusetts

As many of you are aware, I have written about the marriage debates that are headlining in the news around the country. A few minutes ago as I was scanning today’s headline’s it jumped out at me — The lesbian couple whose lawsuit led to legal same-sex marriage in Massachusetts have announced they have separated. So the first question to pop into my mind was: so what? Why is that headline news? But then, this is a country that thrives on a variety of news sources from the mundane to the exotic to the popular images of our movie stars. … Continue reading

Miscegenation is Not Against the Law

39 years ago, in June of 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the final laws against miscegenation. Do you know what miscegenation means? It’s a fifty-cent word that actually stands for interracial marriage. I was thinking about this the other day and started doing some research as Sherry and I posted our viewpoints on the hot-button issue of legislating marriage and what the definition of marriage should be and whether or not the government should issue laws about who can and can’t get married. 39 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court got into the tango of the marriage debate … Continue reading