Marriage
"As long as Property exists, it will accumulate in Individuals and Families. As long as Marriage exists, Knowledge, Property and Influence will accumulate in Families." ~John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, July 16, 1814
About the Issue:
It seems that our nation is faced with a new assault on traditional marriage every day. From legislation such as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and attempts to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) to a soaring no-fault divorce rate, marriage is becoming less valued in our culture.
ENDA, a proposed act of Congress, is one of the gravest threats to religious freedom and traditional marriage today. ENDA prohibits both public and private employers from making employment decisions (hiring, firing, advancement, etc.) based on an employee's actual or perceived sexual behavior, ambiguously defined by ENDA as "sexual orientation." While it is unsure at this point whether ENDA will apply to church schools, Christian bookstores and daycares would be covered and controlled under this law as well as all Christian businesses in telling them what moral standards they may have, including "gender identity" (a person who "changes" their gender in their psyche). Passing ENDA is one large step toward legalizing gay marriage nationwide and forcing all Americans to support open homosexuality no matter their religious beliefs or conscience.
However, more is at stake than that. Family breakdown (divorce, single-parent households, etc.) not only costs taxpayers more than $30 billion a year, it manifests itself in children. A majority of children growing up outside of married families have gone through periods of poverty. Additionally, in Texas alone, the cost of no-fault divorce runs citizens more than $2 billion a year, which goes to direct and indirect costs such as food stamps, public housing, juvenile delinquency, and bankruptcies.
That simply cannot stand. Our children deserve better.
What We're Doing:
Liberty Institute works hard on a national level to defeat bad legislation like ENDA and DOMA, which threaten traditional marriage and freedoms. We also sent a strong message to national law-makers in 2005 after helping Texas lawmakers draft and pass a constitutional amendment, by a 2 to 1 margin, protecting traditional marriage in the Lone Star State.
Right now, we are working for ground-breaking divorce reform in Texas. In previous sessions of the Texas Legislature, we helped to pass a law that waives the marriage license fee for couples who go through state-approved pre-marital education courses. We are also pushing for laws that require marriage training courses for at least one person in a couple seeking a no-fault divorce in a home where children are present.
