Real threats to the family

[Big_John]

Marriage is a private thing between consent adults. It nobody else business what they do or not do. It's just silly when the state, society or community interferes. If any crimes are committed and one of the party reports it, then it becomes an issue, not sooner.....

well, definitions are certainly different depending on where you live, but technically, a marriage is not solely private, as it is sanctioned by the state (at least afaik). the feelings between people can certainly be considered a private matter, but if the social contract of marriage is violated in some way, the state may have the right to interfere.

edit: this is purely hypothetical-speak; i know next to nothing about the actual law in this regard.

[doc_bean]

While I agree with Don's original point, i don't think lance is a very good example. We don't know if he cheated on his wife before they got divorced, we don't know how things are arranged concerning the children and we don't know how much money he gave her. Since the divorce seemed to have gone pretty smooth, I don't think he was a total jerk.

However, some other people have done far worse to the image of marriage. For some reason i'm thinking of politicians here. Kennedy's pretty public affaire (whether true or not) with Marilyn, Clinton's "a BJ is not sex" defense, or Gingrich leaving two terminally ill wives behind.

Of course, marriage seems to be something different in the US compared to what it is in Europe. Here we marry after we've know people for many years (usually), sometimes after a child (or more than one) is born. Certainly those marriages don't fair much better than the US ones (50% divorce rate, average marriage lasts 8 years). Often a 'family' still exists after the divorce, the kids still see both parents regularly and a lot of times everyone is happily divorced. I'm not quite sure if I can really comment on the US' more rigid view of a 'family', and whether or not it's in real danger.