According to the US Focus on the Family website, its President, James Dobson, is about to publish a book entitled Marriage Under Fire, which attacks same-sex spousal and parenting equality. It will be available in New Zealand in mid-July, at a cost of $NZ 20. They provided a website for the book in question, so I can provide GayNZ.com readers with a preview of the contents. Dobson provides eleven "arguments" against providing same-sex spousal equality. Soon, I'll be able to provide our readers with more from this enlightened volume. Point one: Dobson believes that legalisation of same-sex marriage will 'quickly destroy' the 'traditional family.' However, the US and New Zealand Christian Right said that about feminist reforms related to domestic violence, child sexual abuse prevention and spousal rape. Why is it that any challenge to male dominance or enforcement of parental responsibilities or recognition of family diversity is interpreted as an 'attack' on their version of 'traditional families?' Furthermore, theirs is an elitist version of heterosexual families, too. It is narrowly focused on single-income nuclear families, and attacks working mothers who need waged labour to provide their families with a decent standard of living. Two parental incomes are needed for that. Point two: Children do better in stable heterosexual marriages. So, what about Stacey and Biblarz' research about same-sex parenting, which provides an ample literature review about its benefits. Point three: This will affect public schools. Does Dobson mean that they might adopt school-based antidiscrimination programmes which encourage educational retention of lesbian and gay students? So same-sex spousal and parenting equality will actually lessen the need for social welfare benefits? Point four: Lesbian and gay spousal rights lead to calls for the recognition of same-sex parenting rights and responsibilities. So? Either advance credible social scientific material that counters reputable professional organisations that describe the benefits of same-sex parenting, or stop making money from distributing mendacious material within one's website resources or 'research papers.' Point five: same-sex fostering already happens in this country, so we don't need to address that issue. Points six and seven: Dobson worries about the impact of lesbian and gay spousal and parenting rights and responsibilities on US healthcare and social security systems. Centre-right lesbians and gays may agree to disagree with me on this issue, but one might otherwise respond that the US Christian Right shouldn't have shot down Clinton's healthcare proposals and privatised social welfare in their country, otherwise it wouldn't have those problems. And I suspect that Dobson will base his claims about same-sex spousal and family needs for healthcare on Cameronisms, so it'll be interested to secure a copy of his forthcoming book. Point eight: Dobson worries that recognition of same-sex relationship and parenting equality will mean an attack on religious freedom. Again, the US Christian Right confuses religious freedom and radical religious liberty. Religious organisations should not and must not have the "right" to impose sectarian dogma on those of other faiths or secular belief systems who do not share their sectarian stances on controversial social issues, especially if that dogma tangibly harms others. It's too bad that the Canadian Radio and Television Commission has censured a Canadian fundamentalist radio station for carrying one of Dobson's inflammatory antigay broadcasts. It's a good reason for us to use the Broadcasting Standards Authority against any similar broadcasts from Radio Rhema during the forthcoming Civil Union Bill debate, or any obnoxious Radio Pacific hosts. After all, it's already worked against Destiny Television. Point nine: Other nations will emulate what the United States does. It is significant that Focus on the Family Canada director Darrel Reid is cited here, and it was the other way around, according to Reid. The US Supreme Court and its local state equivalents have used Canadian and other international precedents to recognise same-sex spousal and parenting rights and responsibilities in the United States. Conversely, US Christian Right organisations export multimedia and broadcast propaganda that contains their ideology, tactics and strategy to satellite movements outside their country. Fortunately for us, they don't consider that there are unfriendly lurkers out there. Points ten and eleven are fundamentalist gibberish, so there are really only nine points to be made here. However, Focus Canada's Darrel Reid argues that the Canadian Christian Right needs to do things like lobby for discriminatory spousal and parenting legislation, divorce restrictions, discriminatory taxation benefit access, abstinence 'junk science,' enforcement of child support laws and a distorted emphasis on parental 'rights' without reciprocal responsibilities to their children and wider society. Ominously, Focus Canada also supports welfare privatisation, which will have destructive effects on thousands of assorted families of whatever structure. They won't be able to meet mortgages or rent, will be evicted from their homes, their families will disintegrate, and youth prostitution, gangs, suicide and substance abuse will arc sharply upward. It's ironic. If there's a real threat to the survival and welfare of low-income families, it is the distorted values that Dobson and Reid preach, and we aren't the only 'deviant' families under their surveillance focus. Recommended Reading: Marriage Under Fire Website: http://www.marriageunderfire.com/arguments.aspx [Contains a biography of James Dobson and under-construction sections for lobbying government, useful antigay propaganda links, and the aforementioned nine 'arguments' cited in the article above. Bookmark this website and keep it under constant surveillance. Forewarned is forearmed]. Darrel Reid: "Crisis Or Opportunity" (Focus on the Family Canada): http://www.fotf.ca/familyfacts/commentaries/110199.html [Reid made his own eleven suggestions for exploiting current centre-right orthodoxy about containment of central government spending. Note especially the quote about welfare privatisation, which is bound to be a controversial issue outside the United States]. Note: James Dobson: Marriage Under Fire: Why We Must Win This Battle: Multinomah: Portland: Oregon: 2004 [June]. [It is highly likely that Focus New Zealand or the Maxim Institute, or others, may import this book. Keep an eye out for it. As soon as it does arrive here, and I obtain a copy, I will review it on this website.] Rebuttals: Judith Stacey and Tim Biblarz: "How Does the Sexual Orientation of Parents Matter?" American Sociological Review 66:3: (April 2001): 159-183. Caroline Wright and Alison Jagger: Changing Family Values: Routledge: London: 1999. [Excellent analysis of Christian Right and other social conservative attacks on solo parenthood in the United Kingdom and United States]. Gay Marriage : Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America Rauch, Jonathan [Recently published in hardback and Aristotle's Books in Auckland has copies on order. $44.95.] Craig Young - 3rd June 2004