Most of my arguments with defenders of the legalization same-sex marriages have been friendly ones. I have some strong views on the subject, based on my adherence to what I believe is the Bible’s teachings on the subject. But I also care deeply about preserving a pluralistic social order, where individuals and groups have the opportunity to live out their deepest convictions—however disagreeable to people like me—within a framework of a shared commitment to the common good. So, many of my arguments on this particular subject have been efforts on my part to get clear about what the expansion of the concept of marriage to include same-sex unions will mean for the social fabric.
There is one question that I have raised several times in these discussion for which I have never been given an adequate answer. If we are to operate as a society on the assumption that any sincerely held view about what constitutes a marriage should be granted status in our laws and practices, I have asked, what would keep us from legalizing plural marriages, or even incestuous ones? My question has regularly been met with disdain. “C’mon, Mouw,” one conversation partner said recently, “can’t you do better than a ‘slippery slope’ argument?”
