I am still reading that Sowell book when I have time. He has some interesting facts about domestic violence as well. He shows that the women who are safest from domestic violence are wives. Women in de facto relationships are much more often the victims of violence.

Jonathan Sarfati, Brisbane

It is obliterated by being redefined out of existence. And of course death, accidents and many other unfortunate situations often mean the family unit is broken up: eg., the death of a parent, and so on. But that is quite different from deliberately seeking to remake the family unit. Everywhere around the world the mother-father-child unit has been the norm. Today we are embarked on a radical social experiment which is undermining the natural family unit.

And as I said here and so many places elsewhere, you are absolutely wrong in stating that family structure makes no difference to the outcome of children. It overwhelmingly matters, as over 10,000 international studies from the past three decades have made absolutely clear.

So decisive is the data, that we can even document how kids will in fact do worse when a parent leaves the family because of divorce, than if a parent leaves a family because of death. The research on this has been very thorough and very meticulous.

By every indicator – be it educational outcomes, suicide rates, drug abuse, criminal involvement, etc. – the research is unmistakeable here: children do better, all things considered, and with all variables accounted for, when raised by their biological mothers and fathers, preferably cemented by marriage. There are exceptions of course, but exception do not make the rule.

So the issue here is not, say, the tragedy of a parent dying, but of deliberately bringing a child into the world knowing that one of the two most important players will be absent, by choice. So whether it is a same-sex couple, or a single woman choosing to parent a child, this is in fact a form of child neglect, as the social science data so clearly and decisively shows.

Finally, it is interesting how on so many other issues you make yourself out to be concerned only with the facts, evidence and data, not faith or felling. Yet on this issue Steve, you are ignoring or denying the data and evidence, while going instead on faith or feeling.

Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

The homosexual war will be won, in the initial stages, by mimicking heterosexual marriage, but the homosexual community does not really want to replicate traditional marriage. When the homosexual community is offered marriage there is not exactly a stampede. The evidence shows that marriage does not suit their lifestyle, which in their own view is at the very cutting edge of Metro life. What they want is the acceptance and recognition, but it is heterosexual-like marriage which is easiest to sell to the wider heterosexual community. Even those who do want marriage – especially gay men – tend not to see a need to restrict their sexual activity to their menage. Is this the real face of a homosexual family?
www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=408666&in_page_id=1879&in_a_source=

If people believe marriage is just an invention, then they will feel free to change it, redefine it, or even discard it. Clearly the ultimate aim is to destroy marriage completely.

David Skinner, UK

Jonathan didn’t actually provide any info. While it’s true to say that you can’t compare marriages and divorces in any one year to determine the long-term divorce rate, the “analogy” in the last sentence about the death rate is a misleading example of the kind of the error involved.

The actual divorce rate in Australia, i.e. the percentage of marriages that end in divorce, depends on what period of time you look at the figures. It currently stands at 40% according to the AIFS, but other sources suggest it is about 46%. Not exactly great news.

I’d like to know what Jonathan thinks the rate is. It may not be 50% but it’s not far below it.

Steve Angelino, WA

If we apply that test to Eamon Waterford’s experence of being related to four lesbians, we come to the same absurd conclusion. But when we ask how many children, grandchildren, communities and towns have experienced the same creativity, stability, care, respect, responsibility and self-sacrifice by being related to the heterosexual, monogomous and enduring family, the answer is that millions from all backgrounds, nationalites and professions have seen their lives elevated to new levels of peace and joy by following the Judeo/Christian model for the family.

David Skinner UK

I’m puzzled by the title you chose for this piece. In what way is “the family”, which I assume you mean in the generic sense, obliterated simply because different types of family exist in the world?

Owing to divorce, death, alcohol, drugs, domestic violence, poverty, ignorance and other factors, many children are not raised in the “natural family” circumstances that you hold up as the only acceptable “real” family.

Surely the most important factor is that children are raised in a loving, caring, providing environment, and this story certainly indicates that this young man has had such an upbringing.

Steve Angelino, WA