Product Description

"Erudite and impassioned - an act of faith and of resistance to the insidious claims of the post-Christian and post-liberal state."
F. C. Decoste, Professor of Law, University of Alberta

A brilliant exposé of the implications of same-sex marriage - and a compelling analysis of what it will take for society to reclaim the birthright of freedom it has lost in a reckless social experiment.

To some, same-sex marriage is evidence that society has finally come of age. To others, it is yesterday's issue, posing no danger to traditional marriage. To still others - McGill University's Douglas Farrow among them - it has turned civil society on its ear, creating a new political situation in which several things are no longer clear:

. Is the state the property of the citizenry? Or are citizens, with their cherished personal associations, including marriage, now the property of the state?

. Who "owns" the children, now that natural parenthood had been replaced by legal parenthood?

. Is the family still "the natural and fundamental group unit of society," as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights claims? Or is the concept of the "natural" moribund?

. What is marriage for, anyway?

Douglas Farrow is associate professor of Christian Thought at McGill University in Montreal. He is the editor of Recognizing Religion in a Secular Society and co-editor, with Daniel Cere, of Divorcing Marriage.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #264557 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 132 pages

Customer Reviews

Why same-sex "marriage" is not-and should not be.
This is perhaps the most concise, grounded explanation I've seen of why marriage cannot be redefined to include any relationship other than one man and one woman. To do so threatens the check-and-balance on government power that resides in the family--and that's husband/wife/children family, not "we love each other ergo we are family." It illustrates that divorcing procreation from marriage leads inevitably to a government that is not only "big brother," but "mother and father" as well. Perhaps most importantly, it explains how the relentless characterization of personal liberty as "personal autonomy" leads to relentlessly expanded government regulation of every individual.

It is set in the context of Canada's wrong-headed judicial and legislative deconstruction of marriage, but the lessons are clearly understood without understanding Candada's politics.

Frankly, its frightening reading for anyone who loves liberty and hopes for a stable, just society--because we are catapaulting now down a greased slope. But perhaps a good read will motivate good men to do something now, while its not too late.