A Non-Religious Contract In America

Term Paper Title	A Non-Religious Contract In America
# of Words	982
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	3.93

A Non-Religious Contract in America

     The religious standards of Americans today have plummeted to a new low.
Fewer people are going to church than earlier in the century.  Many people are
marrying without even going to a priest by getting a judge to marry them.
Divorce is steadily on the rise.  Today's society accepts homosexuals!  Now the
issue arises over whether we should allow homosexuals to marry.  And you know
what?  It is really none of the government's business.
     America can no longer deny its homosexual citizens the right to have a
legal marriage.  Looking at today's society, we can see that there is no good
reason to deny gay couples the rights that straight couples have in getting
married.  The United States has always had the idea of separation of church and
state, and marriage is one issue that must maintain that idealogy in the eyes of
the government.  The key to separating church and state in the debate over
marriage is taking the definition of marriage that best applies to society today.
To do that we must look at marriage's state in the 1990's.
     Religion is losing its dominance in the issue of marriage.  We cannot
argue the fact that there are more divorces in the country today that there were
20 years ago.  This points to America's increasing acceptance of divorce.
Therefore, we can conclude that religion has become less of an issue for many
Americans when marrying because most religions strongly discourage divorce, some
to the point of not allowing it at all.  This leads to the question, "What is
today's basis for marriage?"
     Some propose that the sole purpose of marriage be to bring life into the
world.  If this were true, then it would be unacceptable for many in this
country to ever be married.  There are many women and men who simply do not want
to have children.  Should we condemn them and not allow them to marry just
because of this view?  Should we not allow those who are physically unable to
have children to experience the joy and happiness that marriage brings?  Those
who cannot bear children of their own can adopt children; would we rather they
raised that child without one or the other parental figure?  Obviously society
does not operate with this as the basis for marriage.  So the argument that
homosexuals should not marry because they cannot have children is entirely
ridiculous.
     Adoption is considered a noble act, and it brings joy into the lives of
many heterosexual parents and their adopted children.  There is no reason why
the same cannot happen for homosexual couples.  I am sure that many homosexual
couples in the U.S. are better parents than some heterosexual couples.  The fact
that there are people that cannot physically have children together does not
mean that they have no parental instincts or would be incapable as parents.
Thus, this argument against homosexual marriages cannot hold in America.
     The government of America recognizes marriage as a secular entity, and
with homosexual unions we must make sure that we look at m...

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