Jennifer Roback Morse - the traditional family

In the context of "support a catholic speaker" hosted on faillibleblogma I will write a post about Jennifer Roback Morse.
I don't know much about catholic speakers. And honestly I didn't join because they are catholics, but because I think it's a neat idea to have a list of public speakers and learn about them, what message they have to share. Except for politicians I don't know many public speakers that are alive.
Of catholic speakers I know 2! Dr Scott Hahn and Jason Evert. Well I know 4 because they are both married and do public talking along with their wives...
I really like Jason Evert because he has a good approach of TOB (theology of the body) for teens, or people like me who like a very accessible first level of teaching before they get to the more subtle theoretical writings of the original author.

I chose Jennifer Roback Morse because the first thing I saw of her was this line :"Promoting marriage at home, at work and in the public square", which is a fairly familiar topic.

• A few words of biography:

Jennifer Morse is a woman who had a very successful carreer in economics, she taught at Yale for years. After getting married she and her husband struggled with infertility. They adopted a little boy and had a baby the same year. Her faith journey goes through indifference (as far as I understood) during the high point of her carreer years, and she became more religious when she got married and faced infertility. Now she is a public speaker for the national catholic register. She has a blog and recently wrote a book "smart sex finding life long love in a hook-up culture".

• What does she speak for:

Basically Jennifer R Morse is defending "traditional marriage". Brackets are mine.
I think traditional marriage is so often immediately associated with conservative and homophobe that it becomes a trap to even mention it.
Jennifer R Morse approach is very conservative indeed. But I was pleasantly surprise to see some solid theologic and economic arguments and not the usual "the old days were better..." or other biased statistics of the past centuries.
I came across this video, which is a debate between JRM and an historian about marriage. It is unfortunately is truncated at many interesting parts.

JRM defends marriage, as a solid structure on which the society is built. She believe marriage should be the foundation of the family: mother, father and children. The parents are in a marriage not as in a temporary contract, but in a partnership that lasts, a personal human relationship.
She has a very socio-economic approach on the topic of marriage. She is opposed to same-sex marriage.

• Some quotes:

Here are some quotes from her article "it takes a family to raise a village" which is a critic of Hilary Clinton's "it takes a village to raise a child".

It takes a family to raise a village. Without the family, the village itself can not function. If the family breaks down, or fails to form in the first place, the “village” can not possibly provide adequate help to repair the damage. The family does something the “village” can not do for itself, namely bring the next generation into being, and socialize them into the kind of people who can participate in a free society. Without the family doing its job, the state will necessarily grow larger, more expensive and more intrusive.

The government is no substitute for the family. In fact, the government can frequently make things much more difficult for families, by undermining family relationships. In any good society, the government must do what only the government can do: keep order internally and externally, enforce agreements and defend property rights. The market must do what only the market can do: create wealth and provide employment by combining goods and services that satisfy consumers. But only the family can create the next generation of human beings who will become citizens and consumers.

Here is an other quote about same sex marriages and fatherhood:
Making same-sex parenting equally acceptable as opposite-sex parenting requires that the public believe that mothers and fathers are interchangeable. A child will do equally well with two mommies, two daddies or one of each. This is the official position of the entire coalition that supports same-sex parenting. By legalizing same-sex unions (which have been legal in the UK since December 2005) the state declares that mothers and fathers are interchangeable. And when mothers and fathers are interchangeable, it is fathers who will be pushed aside.

• What I learned, what I think.

I had never heard about Jennifer Roback Morse before this post. Her voice reminds me a lot of Janet Smith (hey an other speaker I know!), and her general attitude too.
I am really put off by her defensiveness. I do not like a speaker who basis most of his/her arguments on criticizing someone else's. I understand that she wants to defend her idea of family. And actually we probably have the same ideals.. But I am disappointed that it comes across so negative. I like speakers that leave me motivated, encouraged and positive. As often in life I use my "love barometer", does this brought me toward more love, more life, or less? I am sorry to say that listening to her in-length article "it takes a family to raise a village" left me depressed and upset at some ideas, which I would have defended 10 minutes before.
Talking about marriage is tricky.
It is also a very wide topic. JRM has the merit to talk on a socio-economic point of view, which can be very controversial and subjective (see the video I linked to above, where the historian points out that of course married couple are happier than divorced ones, since the unhappy ones divorced...)
About marriage and sexuality, true love and long lasting relationships I would definetly recommand Jason Evert.