Today, many people see marriage as merely an adult centric institution because there is a cultural rift in the connection between marriage and children. Many people put off having children until later in life. Others have children without getting married. Those married with children, due to smaller families and longer life spans, will spend the majority of their married lives without children at home. And, there are an increasing number of adults who never have children. So, for many:
"marriage is merely the public recognition of a committed relationship between loving adults."
However in reality, marriage is a family centric institution. It is the foundation of a stable family. Therefore:
"marriage unites a man and a woman with each other and any children born from their union."
That is what marriage is; that is what marriage does.
Notice that the first definition describes something just for adults—a private relationship with no public benefit.
The second definition, however, describes marriage as the foundation of a family, the foundation of society. Marriage described in this way incorporates the common human desire, of every person, to know and be cared for by his or her own mother and father. Marriage defined this way not only has a public interest, but also is in the interest of every child without exception. Because of this great divergence of understandings about marriage, it is important to clarify which definition you are using when discussing marriage.
NOM likes to argue that marriage is about the family and not the adults. That is fantastic that they wish to argue that; however, it comes off as disingenuous when NOM opposes gay adoption (gay couples trying to start a family). Just to qualify, this is what family means:
a basic social unit consisting of parents and theirchildren, considered as a group, whether dwellingtogether or not: the traditional family.
b.
a social unit consisting of one or more adults togetherwith the children they care for: a single-parent family.
Nowhere is it mentioned that is must be "husband and wife". NOM will argue a child needs a mother and a father, however, this is also disingenuous given that they harp on gay adoption (as opposed to single parents through bastard children [which Maggie knows all about], or single parents through the death of a loved one). In either case, NOM does not put in nearly the same effort to helping those children get two parents as it does in preventing two loving parents from adopting because they are homosexual.
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