Truth Overruled: The Future Of Marriage & Religious Freedom

This is family policy matter program is produced by the North Carolina family policy Council of profamily research unification organization dedicated to strengthening and preserving the family and up from the studio here is John Rustin, Pres. North Carolina family policy Council, thank you for joining us this week. Profamily policy matters. It is my pleasure to have our good friend Ron Anderson windows on the program line is the William E. Simon fellow at the Heritage foundation and editor of public discourse. The Oman Journal of the Witherspoon Institute. Ron previously served as assistant editor of first things in his writings have appeared in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public policy, weekly standard, national review and the new Atlantic. Ron is with us today to talk about his new book truth overruled the future of marriage and religious freedom will be talking with Ron about where we go from here after the US Supreme Court's recent decision, which legalized same-sex marriage across the nation. Ron welcome back to family policy matters to be happy with you.

Well, it's great to have you and we appreciate all your work so much, Ron. As I mentioned, the US Supreme Court. Of course, is forced the redefinition of marriage on every state in the nation and proponents of same-sex marriage claimed. The debate is officially over, but you argue in your new book truth overruled that the debate has only just begun. What is the debate over marriage not over from your perspective and why is it healthy for us as a society to continue to discuss and debate this issue of marriage. You know the main theme of my new book is that the pro-marriage movement in the same exact spot the pro-life movement within 42 years ago after Roby weight, a Roby weight and the discussion about abortion and one ruling from Justice Anthony Kennedy and for liberal judges doesn't end the debate about marriage. I'm not 5 to 4 Supreme Court decision doesn't settle the issue of what marriage is and why marriage matters, nor does it accurately stated what the consequences of redefining marriage will be so one of the reasons that I wrote this book was that it's important that Americans understand what the Supreme Court just did wasn't correct. There is nothing in the Constitution that requires a redefinition of marriage and five unelected judges shouldn't be allowed to make marriage policy for our entire nation lot allow that ruling to go uncontested and so we are now in the same spot pro-lifers found themselves in a generation ago and it's up to you and me in our listeners right now to bear witness to the truth about marriage so that we can rebuild a strong marriage culture run one of the important points that you make in your book is that the redefinition of marriage actually weakens marital norms give us some examples of how same-sex marriage will harm the institution of marriage as we know it. Sure you know the argument here is that think marriage is a symptom of the larger underlying problem is not as if the marriage somehow causes our problems that gay marriage is one of the consequences of a bad ideology about marriage and that ideology many heterosexuals have bought into the ideology that comes out of the 60 that comes out of the sexual revolution more or less says that marriage is simply about consenting adult romance and consenting adults should do whatever consenting adults want to do it. Redefining marriage and it furthers that redefinition by saying that marriage is simply about the desires of adults, not the needs or the right of children in this illegal redefinition of marriage which Anthony Kennedy did a few weeks ago could only take place after a cultural redefinition of marriage and so if you think about the past 40 or 50 years the rise of the hookup culture. The rise of premarital sex, nonmarital childbearing, the spike in divorce rates. All of those problems that heterosexuals caused led to the further redefinition of marriage and all that will further weaken marital norms because they don't make sense monogamy exclusivity permanency marriage is simply about consenting adult romance consenting adults can consent to have an open relationship or a close relationship in consent, that a permanent relationship or a temporary glitch that they can consent that meant a monogamous relationship or polyamorous or polygamist relationship.

If you want to explain marital norms. All of those are based on the union of a man and a woman, a husband and a wife, mother and father.

So, for example, one of the things I point out the book, is that right now. 40% of all Americans are born to single mothers.

50% of Hispanics and over 70% of African-Americans are born to single data lesbians didn't cause that problem. Heterosexuals created that problem because they bought into a bad ideology. The question now is how do we make progress on that. How do we say that fathers are essential when Anthony Kennedy has redefined marriage to make fathers optional because the message of same-sex marriage, that men and women are interchangeable.

Therefore, mothers and fathers are replaceable, but we know that's not true as of the laws going to be teaching a falsehood which makes bearing witness to the truth in passing on the truth to the next generation that much more challenging and yet it still essential that we do it well. It certainly is no run. Of course we know that marriage is not just about the man and woman who are married but it's also about the children, and even about unborn children. I know that you worn in your book. The redefinition of marriage will put unborn children at risk. Explain that for us what you mean the to the redefinition of marriage will put unborn children at risk. How can same-sex marriage affect the unborn short, you know you can think about the problem of abortion in the United States is one of both supply and demand and to lean on the supply side is a huge problem with Planned Parenthood. Either the suppliers of abortion, the demand for abortion one of the major factors leading to that is the breakdown of the family in the spring court's ruling to redefine marriage only take us further down that road and that the result puts more unborn children at risk because redefining marriage redefine parenthood in the best protectors of unborn children are a strong marriage culture and people who take chastity seriously, but Anthony Kennedy's vision of marriage reduces marriage to mere contract and so it makes a culture of chastity and of marriage harder to foster what I explained in this book truth overruled that without strong marriage culture will never have a strong pro-life culture but also there's another way and more distinctive way that same-sex marriage poses these risks to same-sex couples. Now Derek declared the same as married mothers and fathers want to use assisted reproductive technologies to have children of their own. We know about assisted reproductive technologies with sperm donor than a donors and surrogate wombs that D's create many embryos that will then be frozen or destroyed, and that the use of assisted reproductive technologies with sperm donor the egg donor. The surrogate will leave for the creation of children embryonic children who will then be destroyed and it deliberately deprives those children of a relationship with either a mother or a father.

It will be created. They have two moms or two dad but not a mom and a dad and many of them will spend the rest of their lives, either in the freezer or being destroyed as biomedical waste and that's another problem of how redefining marriage redefine parenthood and as a result redefine status of these children love important point to make in your book truth overruled is that the man woman definition of marriage is based on human nature not own what some people have claimed as an anti-gay animosity.

How do we continue to make our case for the truth about marriage believers without being labeled as bigots or is that even possible. I would definitely possibly what we need to be doing here is explaining why our belief are reasonable. One of the things that the pro-life movement did was show that even if you're pro-choice, even if you are in support of abortion, you can understand why a pro-lifer is against abortion, and therefore you might not be willing to have the government course as we need to do is help explain your secular liberal neighbors.

What we believe about marriage because if they can at least understand what we believe about marriage, they might be left inclined to have the government course us and penalize us and violate our freedom. So I do in this book. As I argue in the base of the philosophy social science and constitutional law, ironic secular argument so that even if a secular liberal reader disagrees with me. They can at least understand why they believe what I believe. So they'll be less likely to coerce me less likely to use the government to try to penalize me or shut me down. I think all of us need to be doing.

We need to be helping our neighbors who disagree with us at least see the rationality behind our belief that we don't pose any harm or any threat to the community will be live out our beliefs and therefore the government shouldn't be coercing us well Ron I think another thing that supports the conclusion to is another thing that you highlight in your book in that is the voices of adults who were raised by same-sex parents and are speaking out about the harms that they have experienced as a result of being raised in that sort of an environment share with us if you would one of those stories sure you know it. Chapter 7 of the book I go through the most recent social science on same-sex parenting. What do we know about that. I do know about that is all. The most recent rigorous large, random, representative samples that have been conducted so that children do best when raised by their married biological mother's father. I didn't complement the social science with personal testimony. I'm here. I think that were just following the pro-life script of having women speak for themselves that abortion and how women harms both now abortion harms both unborn human life and the women involved with a very powerful message for the pro-life movement in the same way that there are now several adults who were once children of same-sex couples, and they've spoken out thing we love our two moms but having two moms is not the same thing of having a mom and a dad on several of these now adult children of same-sex couples used to be in favor of gay marriage.

They were in favor of gay marriage but II love my two moms are limited as I want them to have marriage rights anything. It was only when they got married themselves and they saw how their husbands interacted with their children that they realize that fathers and mothers weren't interchangeable and if it is only watching my father, my, my husband be a father to my children that I fully realized what I had missed out on by not having a father Katie Faust. I tell her story in this book out of the straight Heather Barwick. I can't remember which one, but one of those two women use the phrase that same-sex marriage institutionalizes missing parent that would same-sex marriage does is it creates an institution for that missing mom or that missing dad. Up until now we had never viewed adoption or single parenting or divorce and ideals.

We recognize that sometimes the cause of human frailty because of the limitations of human beings we couldn't always reach the ideal and that we would need to have remedial institution, but no one suggests adoption or single parenting or divorce and remarriage are the ideal that we should strive for everything that was same-sex marriage. We are actually creating a new ideal that all child needs her to parent not a mom and a dad I when people hear Katie when people hear Heather very powerful voices, which is why they've been so much of the public square by the gatekeepers of the LGBT movement, the kind of violence. These voices in the same way that we see women tried to silence pro-life women try to say that Barbara boxer Nancy Pelosi speak for all women on the abortion issue.

They tried to silence the voices of feminists for life. Susan B.

Anthony was silent no more. That's why I devoted chapter to telling the story. People need to secure these voices well I think that's all important in these personal stories are so compelling and you know what one thing that I've often heard is so you can debate statistics you can debate positions, but you cannot debate an individual's personal experience or life experience in these life experiences are so key in helping to spread the truth about the importance of marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

And while that complementary union is so vital to the raising of children in the optimum environment.

So certainly there is no mistake in the design that God intended a lot.

Unfortunately, we're nearly out of town for this week working our listeners go to get a copy of your new book truth overruled churches go to Amazon.com you can get the Kindle edition. You can preorder the print addition which will be available at the end of August. It's also available at Barnes & Noble available at the iTunes Store. If you want to get the iBook for your iPhone or iPad is available wherever books are sold in a form. Listeners want to learn more about you running your work, your writings, your research work and I go to avail themselves of those really important and valuable resources needed way to do a Google search for my name Ryan Anderson and the heritage foundation or go to heritage.org and find my author page there great. What we have benefited so much for your wisdom on this issue and on the issue of religious liberty and were so appreciative of that Enron. I just want thank you so much for taking time out of what I know was an extremely busy schedule to be with us today on family policy matters. Thanks much. Thank you. Before we close. I like to invite you to follow the North Carolina family policy Council on Facebook.

Just login and find us@ncfamily.org again@intofamily.org. Be sure to like us when you visit. In addition, for instant updates on profamily news of interest. Follow us on Twitter at MC family oh RJ again.

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