While debates over gay marriage dominate the headlines, the iconic American family, composed of a husband, wife and children, is undergoing a profound transformation. For the first time, fewer than half of American households are headed by married couples. Yet today couples remain married longer, are more loyal and are less likely to divorce.
New York is now the sixth and largest state to allow gay marriage, and it may not be the last. Maryland will try to follow suit, and the fate of the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8 hang in the balance – developments that herald complications for religious groups on both sides of the issue.
Even as public attention focuses on the legalization of gay marriage in New York and related battles across the country, religious communities are continuing to struggle with the role of homosexuals. Presbyterians voted in May to allow openly gay clergy, and in June a Methodist church court convicted a pastor for performing a same-sex union.
The lame-duck Congress repealed the so-called “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy barring gays from serving openly in the military, a fight that galvanized religious lobbyists on both sides of this volatile issue and a battle that mirrored the gay marriage debate in the wider society.
The 2010 midterm congressional elections promised to reshape the political landscape, and they did just that, as Republicans swept to victory in the House while cutting deeply into the Democratic majority in the Senate. But the vote also recast the terrain on moral and social issues important to believers of all political persuasions.
The suicide of a New Jersey college student whose intimate encounter with another man was broadcast on the Internet by two other students has cast a spotlight on the problem of bullying and its often brutal consequences. Religious groups condemn hateful behavior like bullying but can differ on the solutions.
The ethics of fertility treatments are struggling to keep up with rapid-fire advances in biotechnology. The case of Nadya Suleman, the “Octomom” who gave birth to octuplets in January 2009 through reproductive technology, is just an extreme example of the ethical dilemmas that parents, medical professionals and religious leaders are facing.
Religious differences are increasingly complicating child custody cases and are fueling a growing number of news stories. A generation ago, mothers almost always were granted custody and deemed responsible for most aspects of a child’s upbringing. Today these responsibilities are split more evenly between parents, and religion increasingly is a flash point.
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