It comes so innocently; no mischief, no fanfare. She's sitting working on her phonics, a page of "s-blends" images before her – snail; shirt; slow. It's the most natural place in the world for this thought to crop up in her six-year-old mind, this memory of a recent school-time conversation. Are we in a scene scripted for a TV show?
The Respectful Conversations project is an effort to bring together those who disagree about the most controversial issues, to state disagreements civilly and with mutual respect, and to achieve as much mutual understanding as possible. This month's discussion concerns how marriage should be defined in law. Perhaps no issue in contemporary public discourse today is less likely to lead to a respectful conversation.
I was invited to make the case for natural marriage. As I explain in this essay, the legal norms of marriage incorporate the natural norms of marriage not because Jews or Christians (or Muslims, or Greek philosophers, or…) say so but because marriage is for children. Specifically, natural marriage laws secure the right of each child to be connected to her mother and father.
