Societal Suicide In John Colson's 'Gay Marriage'

Annie Nguyen
Mr. Montalbano
AP Language and Composition, Period 4
24 February 2016
“Gay Marriage” : Societal Suicide
Meaning Questions
1. What is Colson’s Thesis? Where does he state it directly?
Colson’s thesis is directly stated with “Marriage is the traditional building block of human society, intended both to unite couples and bring children into the world” (Colson 567). His whole essay is refuting how gay marriage can affect the lives of teenagers and children. Those kids who are from broken homes have a higher percentage of getting into trouble or being in the wrong crowd. He expresses the importance of how it is important to have a family with a mom and a dad so that children can get a good “cultural health”.

2. What evidence does Colson present to link same-sex marriage to an increase in out-of-wedlock births? to link single-parent households to increase in crime, early parenthood, and other problems of young people? How effective do you find this evidence?
Colson’s evidence to

link same-sex marriage to an increase in out-of-wedlock births, to an increase in crime, early parenthood, and other problem of young people is that he has been a ministry for 30 years. Throughout those years, he claims that he has witnessed the many “consequences for a family breakdown”. He also brought up studies to support his link by stating, “Boys who grow up without fathers are at least twice as likely as other boys to end up in prison. Sixty percent of rapists and 72 percent of adolescent murderers never knew or lived with their fathers. Even in the toughest inner-city neighborhoods, just 10 percent of kids from intact families get into trouble, but 90 percent of those from broken families do. Girls raised without a father in the home are five times more likely to become mothers while still adolescents. Children from broken homes have more academic and behavioral problems at school and are nearly twice as kiely to drop out of high school” (Colson 567). Basically, children from broken homes do not get the support needed from both a father and a mother and so they have a higher chance of straying from the good things.

3. What other argument does Colson make against same-sex marriage?
Colson argues that gay “marriage” does weaken heterosexual marriage quoting, Stanley Kurtz, “It follows that once marriage is redefined to accommodate same-sex couples, that change cannot help but lock in and reinforce and the very cultural separation between marriage and parenthood that makes gay marriage conceivable to begin with” (Colson 567).

Gay marriage further damages the connection between marriage and parenthood by causing people to not consider marriagement just to be a parent. He later on argues that marriage has been a tradition since the beginning of time and everything supports it. “The family, led by a married mother and father, is the best available structure for both child rearing and cultural health. This is why, although some people will always pair off in unorthodox ways, society as a whole must never legitimize any form of marriage other than that of one man and one woman, united with the intention of permanency and the nurturing of children” (Colson

568).