Alan Johnson, speaking to “Relate” today, and picking up the snippets from the BBC news site i am now a little bit irritated. his premiss that marriage is not the only relationship for bringing up children in, i would like to consider.
What is a marriage, at its most base form it is two people committing to each other in a deep and committed relationship, rejecting that kind of relationship with anyone else forever.
Religion which is often used to define marriage does not have to have a part, I got married in Church, making those promises to God and not just family and friends mean something to me and my Wife, so that’s why we did that, if I did not believe then i would still have got married, and publicly made that commitment to my wife because the relationship, the marriage means something to me.
If this definition of marriage is then a “Publicly declared commitment to another person, a binding contract, and a turning away from all others because of this commitment” why does Alan want to not talk about marriage. What should we hope for to create the right kind of environment to bring up children, what are the minimum a child should have, they all have two parents, some die, some disappear, and some remain where they are in the relationship they started in.
Rather than have a go a marriage with i suspect a very narrow definition that he would defend on the grounds of not everyone is religious, he and successive Governments should open their eyes, we are talking about a public commitment, one of the foundation stones of civil society, and it has been around for a long time, what could the alternative be, a commitment while it works, a commitment as long as it suits me, a commitment until i don’t fancy you? no sensible person would see these a stable or solid enough to build a civilisation on, so why not call a spade a spade and talk about marriage as a binding committed relationship, publicly acknowledged and celebrated.
It could even be good for the treasury, it would certainly be good for Children
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