"Time to Enlist in the Culture War"

Article on DU's Home page:

"Less well known, perhaps, is research - carried out by a born-again Christian, no less - that shows that fundamentalist Christians are among those with some of the highest divorce rates in the country.

Taken together, these studies demonstrate, first and most obviously, that gay marriage correlates positively with low divorce rates. To liberals, these statistics are solid evidence that convincingly rebuts charges about the apocalyptic effect of gay marriage on the traditional institution. But liberals and conservatives are not measuring the same things. We can only make sense of conservative claims if we understand that what is at stake is not the actual institution of marriage, which can be measured in statistical terms, but the continued existence of a certain hierarchy of power relationships, especially within marriage and families.

Put it this way: it's similar to the difference between being genetically and anatomically male and being what James Dobson and others might think of as "a real man."

If we then realize that women's lack of education is a significant quantifier of female inequality, the correlation between women's lack of education and divorce meshes beautifully with statistics about higher break-up rates in Bible belt states and among self-described born-again Christians. It makes perfect sense that a man who requires an unequal relationship, one who believes in hierarchy and traditional male privilege, might wed a woman with little education and few economic options. Problem is, the real world - or the wicked world, depending on your point of view - offers women too many easy outs from their proper, traditional role."
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The question of "traditional male privilege" again.

Some of these issues - could help frame the debate.