(LONG) Want to share a college paper my son posted on Marriage rights
To be fair, it's a combination of both our schools of thought. It's a "Faith in Humanity Restored" moment, as he got full marks for the paper. This is in a small southern community college, for a philosophy class. The assignment was the moral or ethical standing behind homosexual marriage. He instead wrote on how he felt the entire premise of the assignment perpetuated a state of mind that should never be applied to begin with. I'll let the paper speak for itself, I'm just pretty dang proud that he had the courage to submit it. Just FYI, I can sometimes get finger tied when wanting to respond to any replies...but please be assured I do read them 
The moral issue of educator influence pertaining to marriage rights.
Educators in all aspects help define what some would call ethics or morals when it involves human rights. In kindergarten through sixth grade these are typically learned through example, those we are taught to look at for guidance can mold us like clay with minimum effort. Parents are taught that they must trust in the judgment of the school they send their children to based on our own experiences from what our parents taught us. We are conditioned from a very young age that educators are in authority and should be respected. Respect is a powerful tool in the shaping of a child. For instance the educator who turns a blind eye to a bully teaches the class that the behavior is condoned, where as an educator who pulls the child off to the side to gently correct them teaches the class bullying is wrong. Without ever saying a word, the educator who is silent has begun to help set the child's perception of right or wrong.
In both middle and high school, educators along with peers have a more difficult to define effect although still very real. The pack mentality of teenagers is a well known phenomena, like any other creature the pack rounds on the weakest to cull the herd. Unlike wild animals adolescents use a combination of hurtful words, destruction of self esteem and sabotage of character to separate the abnormal or unique. Many times violence is involved as though to vindicate the thought that different equals lesser than. In example: The coach who makes an adolescent do extra laps because they are “soft” or allowing taunting in the locker rooms to “toughen them up” teaches these young adults that there is but one normal aspect to be. In a nutshell, conform or be ostracized. This can also be seen in the dynamic of other social cliques, you either belong or are cast off. A simple sampling of media targeting adolescents in the form of movies, books or music proves that point.
As adolescents become older and leave high school behind, what they have learned through both observation and life experience continues to shape who they are. Entering college where the educational term teacher is replaced with professor raises the expectation of respect to a higher level. No longer a free education but one that must be paid for, attention is now given to nuance. The approval of the educator is needed more than ever for the student to succeed, so the student is forced to choose a position that may or may not be one they feel comfortable holding.
Stating this I pose to you a question. How are equal rights to include marriage considered a moral or ethical issue? Are we not advanced enough as a species to understand simple equality versus personal belief? The definition of moral is: “concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character.” By this definition the very premise of this assignment is flawed. Marriage isn't a behavior, or based on human character. Marriage is a contract, it is a legal document that allows protection in the courts for property and offspring. The religious aspect of marriage is a choice, not a requirement for the contract.
The definition of ethic is based on the definition of moral as: “a set of moral principles, especially ones relating to or affirming a specified group, field, or form of conduct. “ If the marriage contract does not fall under the definition of moral, then it cannot fall under the definition of ethical. If two businesses foster a merger, do the shareholders have the right to ask what sexual orientation the CEO's have? If the answer is no, then it is no for a marriage which is also a contract. The basis of homosexual versus heterosexual marriage is based in the concept of sin, which is in turn based on religious belief. The ethical or moral teachings of any religion do not apply, they cannot.
As an educator in a position of respect, students look to you for affirmation of their beliefs. They rely on you and other educators to bring sanity to the chaos of life. Posing a marriage contract as either heterosexual or homosexual instead of as a legal document of rights blatantly reinforces the “different is less than" mantra. Our country was founded on religious freedom, in our bill of rights there is a free expression clause under the first amendment that spells out clearly our freedoms of practicing or not practicing religion. The behavior of forcing religious connotation on others who believe differently speaks much to the character of the ones doing the forcing. Perhaps a better assignment would have been the ethics of forcing religion onto unwilling participants if they wish to combine assets and protect their future. There is a reason many marriages are performed by the justice of the peace instead of in a place of worship or by a pastor, from having belief in a non mainstreamed religion to having no religion at all. Should they also not be allowed to marry because they don't hold to the pervasive belief of the public domain?
= new reply since forum marked as read
him.
Young people like your son are the hope of the future of this country.
Congratulations, you have done a great job!
Your son has prepared a well thought out and lucid argument on marriage rights than anything we could ever expect from the Supreme. 
Can you imagine anything like this coming from Clarence Thomas???
