Welcome to Breakpoint and a Daily Look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Coulson Center, I'm John Stone Street. As a recent Substack post from children's rights advocacy group Them Before Us accurately summarized, the decision that was issued 11 years ago in Obergefell v. Hodges, quote, did more than mandate marriage licenses for same-sex couples. In fact, what it did was redefine marriage in law, and redefining marriage redefines parenthood.
Once husbands and wives become optional in marriage, mothers and fathers become optional in parenthood, eroding the right every child has to their own mother and father, end quote. Thus, the Obergefell decision marked yet a further stage in the evolution of one of the core ideas of the sexual revolution, that men and women are interchangeable, not only in rights, but also in social roles and also even in reality itself. A legal decision of this magnitude inevitably will shape the cultural imagination, defining down the essential differences between men and women, husbands and wives, and mothers and fathers, as if those differences were mere cultural constructs. And ever since, we've been served up a narrative that the social innovation of so-called same-sex marriage is a settled matter both in culture and in law. But what if it isn't?
A new poll conducted by the decision company of 1,200 conservative and moderate likely voters found that a significant majority believe, and I quote, children matter, mothers matter, fathers matter, and children's needs should come before adult desires, end quote. According to the data, the narrative that even social and political conservatives these days actually want so-called same-sex marriage and consider it to be settled law is actually unsubstantiated conjecture. As Josh Hammer, a senior editor-at-large at Newsweek and host of the Josh Hammer Show put it, quote, this poll explains. Exposes the growing disconnect between elite cultural narratives and the convictions of conservative and moderate voters. Despite years of messaging from the media, academia, and corporate America, these voters continue to affirm a fundamental belief.
Whenever possible, children should be raised by and connected to both their mother and father. At a time when the center right is often portrayed as fractured, this survey reveals remarkable unity around a principle that should never have become controversial: the rights and needs of children deserve to come before adult desires. Among the findings of this survey is that 96% of these voters say it's important for a child to be raised with both an involved mother and an involved father. 82% agree that no child should be deliberately denied a mother or a father. 78% agree that when a child's needs conflict with an adult's desires, the child's needs should come first.
66% reject the claim that being raised by same-sex parents. is no different for a child than being raised by an adoptive mother and father. And 63% of those surveyed agreed that children are harmed when they lose their mother or father to be raised in a same-sex household.
Now for the record, the very best social science data we have supports these views that these voters apparently hold. While direct comparison studies between children raised by married mothers and fathers and those acquired by same sex couples are often plagued by poor methodology, self selective sample groups, and ideological bias, Two social science findings are overwhelmingly clear. First, that children raised in homes by biological married moms and dads have a distinct advantage. And second, that mothers and fathers parent differently, and those differences actually matter greatly for the health and well-being of children.
Now, interestingly, church attendance seems to be a major differentiator for what people believe about marriage, children, and parenting. As the study found, and I quote, among voters who attend church regularly, 72% agree that every child should be legally recognized as having a mother and a father, but so do 43% of those who never attend church at all.
Now, on one hand, that gap is sizable. On the other hand, a significant portion of the population currently holds a countercultural view about children.
Now, of course, one lesson that we can learn from over 50 years of pro-life activism is that people do not always connect what they believe with the implications of those beliefs. Oftentimes, consistency is disrupted by a population that's been taught that moral beliefs like these have to be kept personal and private and should be outweighed by a commitment to tolerance or accepting everyone. Here too, the heaviest work to be done by those of us who hope to protect children is worldview work. But there's also another lesson to be learned here from those who have fought so hard for so long to make abortion not merely illegal, but also unthinkable. The Supreme Court cannot settle an issue that is so far upstream of its own jurisdiction.
Or Bergefell is not the first or only time the court has gotten such an important decision so wrong. And like in the past, the moral failure of something like Obergefell is an expression of bad anthropology. But also, like in the past, this is not a theoretical mess we've gotten ourselves in. For children everywhere, it's personal. We owe it to them to tell the truth.
We owe it to them to oppose the lies. We owe it to them to convince as many people as we can of what is actually true. Learn more about this new study and how you can join the Greater Than Campaign at greaterthancampaign.com. That's greaterthancampaign.com. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint.
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