Christian Anti-Gay Marriage Activist Admits Institution Of Marriage Is Doing Just Fine

A right wing Christian zealot and anti-gay activist who has made a career out of attacking same-sex marriage and “defending” different-sex marriage, admits that the institution of marriage is actually doing just fine and has been for decades.

In his attacks on the majority of Americans who support legally expanding the institution of marriage to include same-sex couples, religious right Christian warrior Matt Barber has said that the “homosexual lobby” doesn’t want “the white picket fence, they want access to the white picket fence so they can burn it down.”

But in a Friday night World Net Daily op-ed, “Flash: Christians actually far less likely to divorce,” Barber admits that contrary to generally-accepted beliefs, the institution of marriage is actually doing just fine.

Barber, pointing to the research of a “Harvard-trained researcher and author,” says “the 50-percent divorce figure is simply a myth based upon decades-old (and woefully inaccurate) speculation. As it turns out, the shelf-life for marriages in the U.S. has taken a sharp turn for the better since the 1970s and ’80s.”

In short: all the fire and brimstone, end-of-the-world fear-mongering Barber — and his partners in the Christian war against same-sex marriage — have been waging has been entirely without merit. 

The institution of marriage is doing fine — even better than it was just a few short decades ago. And same-sex marriage isn’t hurting different-sex marriage, not one bit. Barber’s numbers prove it.

So why does the institution of marriage need defending?

In his WND op-ed, Barber claims (despite research to the contrary) that “Christian marriages prove the most durable,” or, as he repeats, “as with all things, marriages built upon the rock of Christ prove stronger still.”

Of course, as with most things, Barber blindly promotes Christianity without looking beyond it.

As The New Civil Rights Movement noted last year, an evangelical Christian pollster found that atheists divorce less (and are better educated) than their fellow Christians.

A Barna Research Group report found that fundamentalist Christians have the highest divorce rate, followed by Jews and Baptists, as the Knoxville News‘ Al Westerfield reported. Atheists “tied with Catholics and Lutherans for the lowest divorce rate,” Westerfield wrote.

So, Barber’s “Christian marriages prove the most durable” schtick seems a bit inaccurate.

But bottom line: the institution of marriage is not in danger — nor will attempts by Barber and his ilk to protect it help any.

What would help? The very thing the religious right hates: government intervention.

Why do Americans, especially those who claim to be “pro-life,” refuse to push for what much of the Western world already has? 

Single-payer health care, more paid vacation time, more paid sick time, and especially, more paid maternity and paternity time.

“Out of 185 countries,” Think Progress, (which has a great chart,) reported last month, “the United States is one of just three that doesn’t guarantee paid maternity leave, the others being Oman and Papua New Guinea. Over half of the countries that provide leave give at least 14 weeks off.”

Families — of all shapes and sizes — do need help. 

But the institution of marriage, without Matt Barber, will do just fine. 

 

Image by Abhishek Jacob via Flickr