NEW QUESTION: WHAT SHOULDN'T YOU DO OUT OF WEDLOCK?

A great part of the cultural debate about marriage is a debate about which actions and hopes--if any--should be reserved for marriage alone. Both supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage have invoked a marriage ideal; does that ideal require a corresponding condemnation of, for example, sex outside of marriage? Romantic love outside of marriage? Childrearing outside of marriage?

Any supporter of an ideal must know that not everyone will live up to that ideal. So this question isn't as simple as, "If you think people shouldn't have children out of wedlock, you must think every unmarried mother should have her children taken away!" I think there's space for a more nuanced discussion of whether we, as a society, should say that some behaviors and some needs are only rightly fulfilled within marriage--even if we understand that this ideal will never be 100% realized.

So: If you were counseling high-schoolers, what (if anything) would you tell them to avoid until marriage? What about if you were counseling an adult friend? What, if anything, is inappropriate for the unmarried?

Click below to join the debate!

posted by Eve at 6:00 PM VOTE

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