Marriage and Children
A Conversation about the Effects of Same-Sex Marriage
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Wednesday, April 18, 2007
5:30 PM
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Wednesday, April 18, 2007
7:00 PM
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Ethics and Public Policy Center
1015 15th St. NW
Suite 900
Washington, DC 20005
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In his new book, The Future of Marriage, David Blankenhorn, founder and president of the Institute for American Values, argues that the redefinition of marriage to include same-sex relationships would damage society's most pro-child social institution, traditional marriage. Marriage exists, Blankenhorn explains, not as validation of a purely private relationship between adults but as the ideal vehicle for generating and raising children. Blankenhorn discussed his book with journalist Jonathan Rauch, author of Gay Marriage: Why It is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
DAVID BLANKENHORN is founder and president of the Institute for American Values, a nonpartisan organization devoted to strengthening families and civil society in the U.S. and the world.
A 1998 profile in the New York Times describes Blankenhorn as a “consensus builder for a moral base in society.” Mary Ann Glendon of Harvard Law School writes: “No one writes about the crisis in American family life with more candor, intelligence, and sympathetic understanding than David Blankenhorn.” USA Today in 2000 describes Blankenhorn as “leading a grass-roots movement” to strengthen marriage. A 1995 profile in the Los Angeles Times called him “the de facto navigator” of a new fatherhood movement and the Idaho Statesman describes Blankenhorn’s 1995 book, Fatherless America, as "the bible of the fatherhood movement." In 2005, Carl Gershman of the National Endowment for Democracy called Blankenhorn’s Islam/West project “the most effective initiative to influence opinion in the Arab world since 9/11.”
Blankenhorn has co-edited eight books: Rebuilding the Nest: A New Commitment to the American Family (1990); Seedbeds of Virtue: Sources of Competence, Character, and Citizenship in American Society (1995); Promises to Keep: Decline and Renewal of Marriage in America (1996); The Fatherhood Movement (1999); The Book of Marriage: The Wisest Answers to the Toughest Questions (2001); Black Fathers in Contemporary American Society (2003); Does Christianity Teach Male Headship? (2004); and The Islam/West Debate (2005).
JONATHAN RAUCH, a senior writer and columnist for
National Journal magazine in Washington and a correspondent for
The Atlantic Monthly, is the author of several books and many articles on public policy, culture, and economics. He is also a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, a leading Washington think-tank. In 2005 he received the National Magazine Award for columns and commentary. His latest book is
Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America, published in 2004 by Times Books (Henry Holt).
Rauch's award-winning column, "Social Studies," is published biweekly in National Journal (a Washington-based weekly on government, politics, and public policy) and is devoted to culture, foreign affairs, politics, and law. His articles also appear regularly in The Atlantic. Among the many other publications for which he has written are The New Republic, The Economist, Reason, Harper's, Fortune, Reader's Digest, U.S. News & World Report, The New York Times newspaper and magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, Slate, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and others.
More Information
Julie Sawyer
1015 15th St. NW
Suite 900
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202-682-1200
Fax: 202-408-0632
E-mail: jsawyer@eppc.org
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