Ann,

I will agree with you that all societies have made a clear connection between marriage and marital relations. Our own society does not set a fixed frequency, but we do allow for divorce based on lack of marital relations, or annulment based on lack of consumation. This really does not contradict what I have said, since I do maintain that society promotes the idea that people should grow up to marry and have children. That some societies have used obligatory marital relations as a means of producing more children does not surprise me in the least.

You say that you do not need marriage to raise children. Do you mean that any given individual can have and raise children without the benefit of marriage, or are you saying that you believe society as a whole does not benefit from the institution of marriage as a means of forming family units within which to raise the next generation?

"Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster and what has happened once in 6,000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution" - Daniel Webster