Marriage is dead — and no, gays didn’t kill it.
Nearly 80 percent of Americans under age 30 support gay marriage, according to CNN.
This is no surprise. Younger people, both liberal and conservative, are in agreement when it comes to gay marriage. We tend to divide ourselves on issues such as taxes, economic principles, gun rights and abortion — much more so than on the issue of gay marriage.
This was not the same 10 years ago. The rise in support for gay marriage has been sudden and immense.
The CNN article explained that while young, heterosexual Americans tend to support gay marriage, they consider themselves less likely than ever to get married.
In short, support for gay marriage has gone up, and the inclination to enter a traditional marriage has gone down.
We have to ask ourselves why this has become the prevailing trend.
The easy, go-to statistic is divorce rates. Half of all first marriages end in divorce, and the likelihood of divorce increases with each successive marriage.
That would make it seem as if Americans were fed up with marriage itself, which I don’t believe is the case. People still get married in large numbers; divorces are just easier to get today then they ever have been in the past.
When it comes to women, the stigma of the scandalous divorcee has all but died out. People marry divorcees all the time.
I believe the decline in traditional marriage can primarily be traced to economic factors.
When our parents and grandparents were getting married, the job market was arguably better. People could bank on working for the same company for their entire careers.
Today, America faces a broken education system and an influx of highly educated immigrants. The language barrier may be the only thing keeping under-qualified Americans in the job market over more qualified foreigners.
Nobody works for the same company his or her entire career. The American dream consists of odd job after odd job on our way to destiny and prosperity.
Essentially, our generation can no longer bank on the financial safety previous generations enjoyed.
We can barely take care of ourselves, if at all. Why then, in all good conscience, would we voluntarily sign up to provide not only for ourselves, but in a partnership with an equally disadvantaged other?
Please remember to safely fasten your oxygen mask before assisting others.
We find ourselves amid a plane crash. Maybe when things get better, traditional marriage numbers will go back up.
As far as gay marriage goes, Americans are beginning to recognize the ignorance behind the propaganda rhetoric. There is no right and wrong, no moral authority, just a marginalized group that desires the same rights the rest of us enjoy.
Legislation should not be based on any religious text, plain and simple. It’s what the Founding Fathers intended and a principle we’ve managed to bastardize.
Keep the government out of the bedroom — put it into schools instead.
A demonstrator holds a bible while marching outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Tuesday, March 26, 2013, as the court heard arguments on California's voter approved ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8. The Supreme Court waded into the fight over same-sex marriage Tuesday, at a time when public opinion is shifting rapidly in favor of permitting gay and lesbian couples to wed, but 40 states don't allow it. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
