Editorial: Mental health for the community

The mental health, or sanity, of a community can be defined as its ability to see the truths about human nature and the relationships between people.
The quality of a community can be seen in its willingness, even its determination, to live by truth that can be rationally understood.
There are many such truths of human nature, beginning with respect and protection for every human life, and extending to care for the weak, the poor, and the physically and intellectually disabled. It is not hard to see that Australia has considerable shortcomings in these and other areas, but particularly in respect for life.
The current test of our community’s mental health concerns marriage – our understanding of it and our respect for it.  Already, we are showing serious weaknesses in this regard, and our Federal Parliament’s understanding and commitment are under challenge on the issue of so-called gay marriage. The test is whether MPs can answer rationally and with conviction in Parliament.
Marriage was the natural human choice long before the creation of the civil or religious laws that subsequently came to support it. Worldwide, marriage was the union of a man and a woman freely entered into for life.
This union of two sexes is the pathway to new life and the foundation of the love that is essential for the full development of the young. It was and is the bedrock for the establishment of families and societies, tribal or otherwise, in which people could respect one another’s marriages and unite to care for those in need, such as widows and orphans.
Marriage was not created by governments, nor ordered by kings. It was the natural response of people to their own human nature.
Those who can see the underlying wisdom and truth of the human choice for marriage will also see that to put the word ‘homosexual’ (male or female) with the word ‘marriage’ is nonsense, no matter how well intended the nonsense might be.
Homosexual pairings are not sexual unions because there are not two sexes to be united. They are not reproductive unions because there are not two reproductive systems to be united. And if children are somehow incorporated, they are not able to live with their biological origins, and are further deprived by not being able to live with a male-female combination of the two halves of humanity whose love for one another naturally teaches children that humanity is united.
None of this should be construed as an excuse for resentment or animosity towards people who experience same-sex attraction. They generally have a harder road to travel than most of us, and they are entitled to our respect and friendship.
 But the current law on marriage is not a matter of unfair discrimination. It is a matter of reality, just as our refusal to let blind people become train drivers is not unfair discrimination, but simply acceptance of reality.
This is a profoundly important matter for our Federal Parliamentarians and it deserves far deeper consideration than the sort of opinion sampling that has been proposed for our MPs in their electorates. Societies that impose laws and practices that do not accord with human nature quickly suffer serious consequences and decline.
To understand the importance of marriage to our society MPs need only study the veritable mountain of information built up by reputable social scientists over the last 50 years.  There has not been a thorough study producing empirical evidence which has revealed other than that divorce does serious harm to children and to the adults the children grow into.
The studies are not only concerned with the negative effects of divorce. They also demonstrate that marriage is associated with a broad array of positive outcomes for children and adults alike, including the ability of children to establish and maintain their own marriages. .
Marriage is superior to re-marriage after divorce and far ahead of the modern fashion for cohabitation in providing stability and fulfilment for adults and their children.
Marriage is also associated with many directly social goods such as better health and lower rates of injury, illness and disability in both men and women. The health disadvantages of being raised outside intact families persist long into adulthood.
There is also clear evidence that outside marriage there are higher rates of psychological distress and mental illness; more alcohol and drug addiction; and more violence, delinquency and criminality.
The wealth of evidence in favour of marriage and against divorce and cohabitation annoys many people and mystifies others. However, when it is properly understood, it can be clearly seen that it confirms the wisdom of the natural human intuition for marriage that has been dominant throughout history.
Australia is already suffering intensely from the injustices inflicted on large sections of the last two generations by the failure of our laws and social institutions to protect marriage and family life. In particular, the education offered to children and teenagers by our Public Education and Public Health systems undermines their natural understanding of the meaning of their sexuality and their natural desire eventually for a faithful marriage.
The intense academic scrutiny of the damage done by divorce to adults and children – and particularly children – has produced overwhelming evidence that couples should do their utmost to learn how to keep their marriages healthy and intact.In the best interests of children and society, this ought to be an integral part of relationships education. Sadly, it is not.
All Federal MPs should make themselves familiar with the facts and the meaning of all this study undertaken during a half-century of unparalleled family breakdown, and look carefully at how this damage shows itself in our society.
A parliamentary declaration that ‘gay marriage’ is the same or in any way equivalent to marriage would be a further betrayal of the foundation stone of society and would result in further damage that Australia cannot afford.