Parshall Partners

Individual Autonomy

         I have used the platform of my weekly commentary – as well as that of my national radio broadcast – to sound the alarm on the insidious cultural movement to redefine marriage. God Himself designed, instituted and blessed this union of one man and one woman. In the garden of perfection, God set forth, for all the world to know, what a marriage is to be. But in a post-Truth world, man continues to ‘do what is right in his own eyes.’

         First it was same-sex unions, then it was a call for three-parent households with polygamists couples, now a story out of New York state confirms that the adulteration of marriage is far from over.

         A parent in the Empire state wants to ‘marry’ his/her adult offspring. He/she has filed a lawsuit, attempting to overturn the incest laws in that state, citing that he/she has the right to “individual autonomy.”

         According to court papers, the parent wants to remain anonymous because the request is “an action that a large segment of society views as morally, socially and biologically repugnant”.

         The filed court papers offer more insight. They state:

“Through the enduring bond of marriage, two persons, whatever relationship they might otherwise have with one another, can find a greater level of expression, intimacy and spirituality.”

         The sex of the parent is not being made public. Neither is the age of either party for this proposed coupling. Their hometown is likewise not being revealed. But the court papers do say, ““The proposed spouses are adults (and)…are biological parent and child. The proposed spouses are unable to procreate together.”

         All of this secrecy should tell us something – and it does. Incest is illegal. In New York, incest is a third-degree felony with a possible sentence of up to four years in jail. Incestuous marriages are voided and the partners could each face up to six months in jail.

         In New York city and surrounding areas, when seeking to get a marriage license, the parties have to show there is “no legal impediments to the marriage.” Currently, this parent attempting to ‘marry’ his or her child is the very definition of illegal.

         Because the petitioner states that conceiving children would not be possible, the parent is asking that laws dealing with “Parent and Adult Child Non-Procreationable” adults be deemed to be unconstitutional. The court papers state:

“Parent-and-adult-child couples for whom procreation is either virtually or literally impossible can aspire to the transcendent purposes of marriage and seek fulfillment in its highest meaning.”

         Initially, there may be a collective cry of disgust when hearing about this case, that same guttural groan heard when we started talking about a man marrying a man or a woman being one of three wives in a marriage. As in those cases, the outrage will soon die down, and the infectious notion of normalizing deviancy will start to take over the body politic.

         Dorothy Sayers one said:

“The popular mind has grown so confused that it is no long able to receive any state of fact except as an expression of personal feeling.”

         That cry for ‘individual autonomy’ is what caused Adam and Eve to be thrown out of the Garden and it’s what keeps us outside of Eden to this day.

         Those are my thoughts. I’m Janet Parshall.