Marriage and Society

Continuing Marriage Mondays!  For the introduction, click here.  The purpose is to explain why it is essential that we defend traditional marriage.  Today's post is part of the secular argument.  The Christian understanding will follow later.  Remember, any comments left must be respectful and loving. 

Throughout history, the social purpose of marriage has always been to attach mothers and fathers to their children and to one another.  Marriage has been the building block of society.  Marriage gives society the one thing it needs most to survive: more members!  Only the stable union of marriage can create children AND bring them to maturity so that they can be productive new members. 

In 1947, Carle Zimmerman of Harvard University presented results  the most exhaustive study of families throughout history and from every culture.  It was his magnum opus, titled Family and Civilization.  He studied the various types of families to see if and how they corresponded to the rise and fall of civilizations.  Paying special attention to ancient Rome and Greece, Zimmerman studies the evolution of families and notes patterns that exist throughout time. 

Zimmerman agreed with Marx and Engels that the family structure is powerfully linked with economics and politics.  Along with political theorists such as Locke and Hume, he viewed the family as a private agreement between a man and a woman for civil functions.

In Family and Civilization, Zimmerman notes three types of family structures: trustee, domestic and atomistic.  The following chart notes the differences between the three.  

The differences are stark.  Zimmerman points out that only societies based on the trustee family have been able to rise to the level of civilizations, and yet none are able to maintain the trustee arrangement forever.  

The domestic model is a transitional phase from trustee to atomistic, but it is short-lived.  Zimmerman credits the Catholic Church with the rise of the domestic family in the Middle Ages.  The Church tried to moderate the barbaric features of the trustee family while keeping society from lapsing into the decadent atomistic family of the Roman Empire. 

When the atomistic model is dominant, family duties are impediments to the individual's fulfillment.  This model is marked by widespread divorce, unrestrained sexual activity and a population decline.  This model usually signifies a civilization in its ultimate decline. 

And if that's not bleak enough...

A British psychologist and anthropologist named Joseph Unwin was convinced that monogamous, heterosexual marriage was not necessary for a society to thrive.  So in 1935, he studied eighty different cultures across time and space to prove it. 

His conclusion?  Without exception, unless a society embraces absolute monogamy between a man and a woman in marriage, they would not last.

He noted that it takes three generations once this model is embraced to reach the peak of productivity, and when it is reached, licentiousness (lacking moral restraint in areas of sexuality) and outbursts of homosexuality begin to creep in.  At that point, within three generations, society will collapse.

Current analysis of this study and application to our country has led some to conclude that since World War II, we are at the end of the second generation before our collapse. 

Even though this is technically the secular argument, I would be negligent if I did not note that this information is nothing new to our Church. 

Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI stated in regards to same-sex marriage, "What's at risk is the future of society." 

Cardinal Arinze (the head of liturgy in Rome) claimed, "If we lose marriage, society will collapse." 

And our very own Archbishop Chaput of Denver warned us, "Although abortion is the greatest evil of our time, the greatest and most eminent threat is same-sex marriage."

I know I'm ending on a bleak note, but stick with me through the hard parts so we can get to the beautiful teachings!  Next Marriage Monday will explain why marriage is necessary for children.