In the Bible belt. Divorce and spousal abuse rates are higher there than they are in any of the more liberal areas of the country. But if these intellectual luddites were to actually look in the mirror regarding what's threatening heterosexual marriage, they'd be forced to discover that SOMETHING about what they're teaching their flocks in the areas of healthy relationships, married life, etc., not to mention their approach to marriage counseling simply doesn't work (if they do it at all... many if not most are incapable, lacking any knowledge of basic human psychology or useful counseling techniques).

The whole "wives should be subservient to their husbands," "husbands must be the absolute rulers over their wives and children," and "women can never be in positions of authority over males, even male children" just doesn't cut it in our current society, nor is it psychologically or theologically healthy.

It's based on an entire set of programmed dysfunctions which they don't have the guts to try to discover and change in themselves. They don't seem to realize that Jesus' attitude toward women was exactly the opposite of their own.

Lacking the courage to seek greater health and faithfulness to the Gospels themselves, they point their fingers and scream, "It's the fault of the fags." It's not. It's the fault of the Conservative/Evangelicals (and some conservative Catholics and Episcopalians). By ignoring the things that endanger heterosexual marriage, they only ensure that its standing as a normal and useful way of living in society continues to deteriorate.

If heterosexual marriage does come to be regarded as a quaint old tradition no longer applicable to our society it will be the fault of these screaming Evangelicals. They will have killed it themselves, because people will increasingly reject it if only because these men, so filled with hatred toward women (and the self-hating women who support them), and so filled with hatred toward gay and lesbian people, are in favor it.

Despite the pseudo-religious faith invested by so many in the various styles and flavors of economic-"isms," the fact is, humans are always the monkey wrench in the works of every economic system. The trick in minimizing this is to require transparency and to set up rules and regulations with enforcement mechanisms and personnel sufficient to prevent the worst of human tendencies toward greed to be freely expressed (all of which had been recently "de-regulated" out of existence in the US).

That and of course the system must be set up so that its purpose is to meet the needs of the society by effectively meeting the needs of the vast majority of citizens: providing useful incentives for those who might be inclined toward doing no productive work, whether rich or poor, to accomplish things that are worthwhile for themselves and for the society as a whole, while at the same time providing resources for those who are unable to work - medical and psychological help for those whose or mental health issues and dysfunctions make them unable to work or useless as workers - and basic food, clothing, shelter and health care for those who, for whatever reason will never be able to work (or work again).

You'll notice that maximum short-term profit, in other words, running the economy as one big get rich quick scheme, isn't anywhere in that picture. Seeing profit and the personal accumulation of resources as the only useful purpose of economic activity is what got us into this mess (the same as the Communist party in the old U.S.S.R.). The only thing that will get us out of this mess is taking a broader societally-based rather than strictly personally-based view to the purposes of economic activity and yes, that will take us a bit toward one of those other "isms."

But if you look objectively at the world around us, this approach is what works, no matter what form of "ism" your personal economic guru/messiah may have espoused. For those of us who believe the Gospels, it also would align our society more closely with the one some of us take to have been the actual Messiah.