I'm sure you've seen it. It's been all over the news. A new study claims "children of lesbian couples do well." You can read the study for yourself. I hadn't read the study but when I first heard about it, I was skeptical. Why? Because families are not socially constructed but divinely designed. And when human beings function outside of God's design they don't do well, rather they break down. Hurt, pain, and dysfunction follow.
Today at the Acton University, I was able to sit in on Dr. Jennifer Roback-Morse's lecture, "Beyond Contracts: Marriage and Sustainable Markets." She addressed the study and has outlined "8 reasons why the study does not prove anything about the functioning of the children of lesbians":
1. The sample is extremely small: 78 children of lesbian mothers and 93
children in the control group.
2. The sample of lesbian mothers is unlikely to be representative of the
general population of lesbians. This is a sample of people who
volunteered for the study, not a random sample. The most motivated and
high-functioning people are the most likely to volunteer for a
politically charged study.
3. The “results” are intrinsically unreliable. The results are nothing
but the mothers’ reports of their childrens’ behavior and functioning.
There is no cross-checking with objective outcomes, such
as actual school achievement or teacher’s reports of behavior problems.
4. The results for the lesbian moms show no difference in any indicator
between boys and girls. This is highly unusual, and supports the
possibility that the lesbian mothers are under-reporting difficulties.
5. The children of lesbian moms do just as well, whether or not the
couple had separated. This too, is highly unusual. Most studies show
that children are harmed by disruptions in the parental relationship.
6. This study makes no attempt to control for possibly confounding
factors, such as socio-economic status. According to previous reports
on this sample of lesbian mothers, 67% were college educated, and the
median household income was $85,000. The children’s high functioning
could be due to the fact that these lesbian mothers have more resources
than the average family.
7. The study does not report on how the control group of 93 children was
selected. We have no way of knowing who these 93 children are, or how
representative this control group really is.
8. The most detailed part of the study was devoted to showing that any
problems the children of lesbians experienced were due to homophobia.
But the causal link between the mother’s reports of homophobia and the
mother’s reports of aggressiveness could run the opposite way: kids
might dislike those who are aggressive, and this dislike could be
interpreted as homophobia.
Not only is the study completely unreliable, but Roback-Morse argued there are at least 3 harmful messages behind the study:
1. Women are better parents than men. Therefore,
two women are better for kids than a mother and a father. Men are
unnecessary and possibly dangerous.
2. The only problems that the children of lesbians experience are
really caused by straight society.
3. The children of lesbian parents were intensely planned and deeply
wanted. Therefore, manufacturing children through Donor Insemination is
superior to conceiving children through an act of sexual intercourse.
It's naive to think that changing the fundamental institution of civilizations--the family--won't have serious consequences. Make no mistake. When you redefine marriage, you redefine parenthood. And when you redefine parenthood, the impact will endure for generations.
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What, is Brett now deleting the challenging comments?
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ConversantLife
People have been, unfortunately, redefining the family in negative ways for generations. Affairs, divorce, choosing to have children and not be married, absent fathers, children placed in fostercare . . . and granted they all have some consequences. Yet I get the impression you see this as somehow different? More insidious?
Good thoughts & question, Kristen. I wouldn't call things like affairs, divorce, absent fathers, etc. a redefinition of family. These things are a breakdown of what the family is already defined as. So yes, I do see same-sex parenting as different.
God's design for parenting is one mom and one dad. Unfortunately, in a fallen world, we see God's intended design breaking down around us. But in the past, there's been an acknowledgment that that's what was happening. The ideal wasn't met. A "broken" family was one where the dad was absent, a divorce was chosen, etc. Indeed, a "broken" family implies a way the family ought to be and function.
However, same-sex parenting redefines parenthood. There is no divine design. It's not one mom and one dad as the standard. Instead, the very nature of same-sex parenting implies that moms and dads are interchangeable. It doesn't matter the gender of the parents as long as they fulfill certain functions (e.g. loving the kids, providing for needs). So you can have two dads or two moms and there is no difference from having one mom and one dad. And I think this redefinition is more insidious and the effects will particularly be felt long-term.
Jennifer Roback-Morse has done some really good work in this area. She looks at the evidence from social science and demonstrates how children clearly need moms and dads. Check out her material at http://www.ruthinstitute.org/index.html.
If conservative opponents of same-sex marriage really think that the evidence is on their side, then let them produce the studies. If they think that the current studies aren’t sufficiently controlled, then let them produce more rigorous studies.
Go ahead, try to make your case with science. Since this is what you claim, give us the hard evidence that the children of same-sex couples are worse off. Give us the hard evidence that same-sex marriage leads to “hurt, pain, and dysfunction.”
As they say, put your money where your mouth is.
Yeah, sounds like you're really open to the evidence CT (*sigh*). I've tried to engage you elsewhere but you substitute sarcasm for reasoned dialogue, so I won't waste time here. You can simply go the http://www.ruthinstitute.org/index.html and look at the evidence for yourself.
Stepping out a bit here, but in addressing the third "harmful message" of the study: My children were conceived via sexual intercourse. That means they were not only "intensely planned" but also intensely conceived. And while my children are mostly grown now, they are still "deeply wanted"--as is my wife!