Thursday, March 04, 2004

Divorce

Over at Crooked Timber, Kieran discusses the fairly recent (and close) attempt to amend the Irish constitution to outlaw allow divorce. He makes a good point which is often somewhat obscured by the religious overtones of all of this. We're all aware that the Bible has a lot more to say about divorce than it does about homosexuality, but Kieran's point is that even ignoring any religious considerations, the arguments for outlawing divorce have a much more solid foundation than do arguments against gay marriage. That is, for those who accept that marriage as an institution is truly the foundation of society, divorce is a messy business.

So, for the family values crowd - both the secular and religious arguments suggest that divorce, not homosexuality or "gay marriage," should be your top priority. Why isn't it?