My Marriage Is Threatened

My wife and I will have been married 20 years this coming October, but our marriage is threatened by others who do not respect the institution of marriage. These people want their marriages to be recognized just like the rest of us. If people who are unfaithful are allowed to marry, nobody is safe.

Well, I say it's time to put our foot down. Marriage is the basic unit of every civil society which has been tested and reaffirmed over thousands of years. Yet there are people who cheat on their spouses and expect us to look the other way. If you're cheating on your spouse, then you're not really married!

Not only have the legislature and the courts looked the other way, but we have prominent politicians and jurists who have been guilty of infidelity. Presidential candidate John McCain cheated on his first wife, then divorced her and married his mistress. By the way, she's rich. When former presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani cheated on his second wife, he did it in public, not even caring that people knew about it. Eliot Spitzer paid for it (and then he paid for it). And let's not forget Congressman Larry Craig, who tried to cheat on his wife in an airport bathroom. Like many cheaters, Craig told the world he was faithful, while he cheated in secret. And I fear that the number of judges who've had affairs is too large to count.

How can we possibly trust these people to defend marriage?

Over the years, they have continually eroded the institution of marriage to the point where the rest of us are not secure. They threaten the customs, laws, and social norms of human experience. Not only are these cheaters demanding full marital rights, including tax benefits and the ability to make medical decisions for their spouses -- they're getting it! Yes, that's right -- the cheaters get the same benefits of marriage that us faithful people get.

This threat to the traditional meaning of marriage is ongoing. Some would say that marriage is already defined as a union between two faithful people, but, clearly, that is not enough. We need protection. Marriages between adulterers should be annulled as soon as the adultery is learned of. People planning to be married must be investigated to see if they have already cheated and they must be denied a marriage license if they have. If these laws were already in effect, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Eliot Spitzer, Larry Craig, and many others would not be married today.

We need a constitutional amendment banning unfaithful marriage and we need it now!