Talking Points (Marriage)

Marriage is Good for Women, Men, and Children

• Marriage elevates well-being measures for men and women. Research shows that married men and women enjoy the following benefits:
• Higher levels of physical and mental health
• Longer lives
• Happier, healthier and less violent relationships
• Greater emotional support
• Lower levels of depression and suicide
• Reduced risk of either perpetrating or suffering a crime
• Increased individual earnings and savings
• Marriage elevates every important well-being measure for children. When raised by both biological parents in a low-conflict marriage, more than 30 years of studies show that children are:
• More successful and better-behaved at school
• More likely to attend and graduate college
• Less likely to live in poverty
• Less likely to drink or do drugs
• Less likely to be sexually active
• Less likely to commit crimes or act violently
• Less likely to be sexually or physically abused
• More likely to have successful marriages of their own
• Expected to live longer than children from divorced homes

Marriage is Essential to a Thriving Society

• Marriage provides important benefits to society that no other institution can. Marriage:
• Regulates sexuality. Marriage establishes sexual guardrails, which remain a requirement for all successful societies.
• Socializes men. A society's most serious problem is the unattached male, and marriage links men to women who help channel male sexuality and aggression in socially productive ways. Marriage and parenthood socialize men to care for and respect their wives, other women and children.
• Protects women. Without a social norm of monogamy, women become commodities to be used and discarded.
• Provides children with a mom and a dad. Both mothers and fathers contribute in unique and irreplaceable ways to their children that prepare them to contribute to,and continue a flourishing society.

Marriage is Bigger Than Just One Couple

• Marriage is not the invention of government. It is a pre-legal institution and has existed since the beginning of civilization in every known society.
• Governments recognize marriage because it provides the next generation of upstanding citizens – something the government needs and cannot provide for itself.
• Marriage is the only means for melding two sexes into a stronger and more complete whole. Gender distinctions are not merely a social construct; men and women are uniquely designed to complement each other physically, emotionally and spiritually.
• The major religions of the world all recognize marriage. In the Christian Bible, marriage is ordained by God, and Jesus Christ underscores its sacredness. Paul described marriage as an ongoing demonstration of Christ's love for His church.
• Marriage provides economic benefits to minorities.
• Proponents of homosexual "marriage" have yet to prove that children, families and society will benefit from redefining it.
• Only a federal amendment to the U.S. Constitution can fully defend the institution of marriage: protecting states from having same-sex marriage imposed upon them by the federal judiciary.