Gay Marriage: A threat to the family?

According to Stuart Laidlaw, the Faith and Religion Reporter for the Toronto Star, same-sex marriage has become a threat to the foundation of society.

Giving him the benefit of the doubt, the comment was framed as paraphrase of the Catholic church. However, Laidlaw made an unattributed reference to same-sex marriage being harmful to "the very foundation of society - the family." Check it out. It's in the second to last paragraph.

Let us reflect on why this statement is out of line:
1. It is unethical to editorialize in a piece written as news.
2. A news piece should include responses from more than one stakeholder in order to
provide balance.

Maybe Laidlaw should give a stab at The Kid by Dan Savage, a lesson in Savage Family Values. He just might find a more, shall we say, academic undestanding of marriage.

Marvin Harris, the late professor of anthropolgy at Columbia University, studied what he called "cultural infrastructure," a term that is, in the philosophical sense, close to Laidlaw's "very foundation of society". Harris taught practical ways of viewing sociological devices. On marriage, he said that its universal application is the creation of "affinal ties" (in-laws).

According to this view, same-sex marriage is healthy for society because all individuals are linked to one another through affinal ties, creating an increasingly vast network throughout the society. The focus then becomes on social, political and economic strengths built through a marital union rather than sexual behaviors.

I am certain that Harris' theories would be dismissed as he was a Marxist.