Tea at Trianon: Fighting for Marriage

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Fighting for Marriage

From Patti Macguire Armstrong:

You can fight to save the whales, dolphins, and baby sea turtles, but if you fight to save traditional marriage, you will be called a “bigot” and be compared with hate groups....

May explained that the relationship between marriage and children is considered secondary today. “Not every married man and woman has children, but every child has a mother and father. It is what connects them. When a man and woman marry,” he said “they choose to make themselves irreplaceable to each other, and that is what capacitates them to receive a child as a gift. That child is irreplaceable to them and they are both irreplaceable to the child… their choice to marry creates the circle of irreplaceability that we call the family.”

He uses the starting point of children’s rights to help others see the truth and beauty of marriage. May says that the fact that our society is facing a crisis in marriage highlights our need to strengthen the recognition of what it is. According to him, this has nothing to do with homosexuality but the ability to have laws, school curricula, and institutions that teach our children about the importance of men and women marrying before having children. (Read entire article.)