Sargent on marriage

Our own Mark Sargent has a very insightful review of David Blankenhorn's new book on marriage, "Goods in Conflict."  Here is a link to the review.  Here's a bit, from the conclusion:

As constitutional nondiscrimination principles are extended to sexual orientation in general and same-sex marriage in particular, a collision between those new rights and religions' First Amendment rights is inevitable. In Massachusetts, the conflict over Catholic Charities' refusal to place children for adoption with same-sex couples resulted in the organization's decision to end its entire adoption program rather than comply with the state nondiscrimination requirement. Of course, many Catholics disagreed with the policy in the first place; yet the case exposes the limits on religious institutions' ability to rely on the First Amendment to protect faith-based practices that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. When the right to religious freedom collides with the new constitutional rights of gay people, their rights will trump in most cases.

Is that a reason to oppose same-sex marriage, as Blankenhorn would conclude? Perhaps not. Still, little comfort should be drawn from characterizing this battle as a matter of "goods in conflict." The triumph of one good may lead not to an erosion of marriage, but to an erosion of religious freedom. And that would not be good at all.