In order to preserve the sanctity of marriage, shouldn’t we outlaw divorce? What meaning does marriage even have if it can be undone at the slightest whim? Baseline is that we should not let married couples disband until one of them is dead. By natural causes of course. If people choose the wrong person, then they have the rest of their lives to anguish about it! After all, hasty and rash decisions are not conducive to the sacred union of two souls…and those that make them will have to live with the consequences.
And remember, this is only to better America and keep our traditional values pure.
“Tradition” can be a scary thing when you make everyone live by it. Tradition is just a societal custom of social or religious value. When you say that “this is only to better America and keep our traditional values pure,” you forget one of America’s most important traditions: freedom of choice. By outlawing divorce you would be forcing people to follow a tradition of religious origin, which could be argued to violate the First Amendment. Also, all of those stuck with abusive or cheating spouses would be left without a way of ending their abominable relationship to start a new one. The abused spouse can turn in their partner to the authorities, but should they not be given the choice to end their marriage and start a better one once their spouse is in prison?
I do agree with you in that there are way too many divorces and the value of marriage is far too low, but your method of enforcing the value of marriage is what I disagree with. In my opinion, I think a “get the message out” sort of approach would be better. More than half of the divorces in the US are by couples under the age of 30. We should start putting higher values on smarter choices in marriage and encouraging long-lasting relationships. I agree completely with your “purity” morals but believe in strongly that the choice others make should always be their own. Besides, its not like someone else’s divorce will affect me in any way (unless I know them well or they are family members {but it’s still not my relationship}).
” “Tradition” can be a scary thing when you make everyone live by it. Tradition is just a societal custom of social or religious value. When you say that “this is only to better America and keep our traditional values pure,” you forget one of America’s most important traditions: freedom of choice. ”
That was exactly what I was getting at. A lot of my posts, such as this one, take a radically conservative view on an issue and show how ridiculous it is to keep ‘tradition’ going. Usually it’s alluding to gay marriage because that’s one of my most important issues.