Focus on the Family founder and chairman James C. Dobson predicted on his radio program that allowing same-sex marriage in the United States would lead to “group marriage,” “marriage between daddies and little girls,” or “marriage between a man and his donkey.” Dobson called this vision of the future “more or less a prophecy,” though, he stressed, not a “divine prophecy, but a prediction.” He said that his specific examples, as well as “anything allegedly linked to civil rights,” will be “doable, and the legal underpinnings for marriage will have been destroyed.”
Dobson was apparently responding to comments made by Roll Call executive editor Morton M. Kondracke on the August 23 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume. Kondracke said that Dobson worried him because “he says that, you know, gay marriage is the end of Western civilization. And he can shut down the phone system at the Capitol if he energizes his base.”
Dobson's comments regarding marriage with donkeys echoed Fox News host Bill O'Reilly's obsession with barnyard animal marriages.
Dobson also claimed, as proof of the dangers of allowing same-sex marriage, that “young people are not getting married” in the Netherlands. However, although same-sex marriages have been legal in the Netherlands since 2001 (with registered partnerships available since 1998), according to the official Dutch statistics agency, the average age of first marriage in the Netherlands has been steadily increasing since the late 1970s.
From the October 6 edition of the Focus on the Family radio program:
DOBSON: What's he [Kondracke] talking about here? It really goes to things I've said on this broadcast but is articulated in my book, Marriage Under Fire [Multnomah, 2004], about what is happening with the homosexual movement and why they want to change the definition of marriage. And I wrote this, and this is really what he's reacting to. I said: “Why will gay marriage set the table for polygamy? Because there's no place to stop once that Rubicon has been crossed. Historically, the definition of marriage has rested on a foundation of tradition, legal precedent, theology, and an overwhelming support of the people. After the introduction of marriage between homosexuals, however, it will be supported by nothing more substantial than the opinion of a single judge or by a black-robed panel of justices. After they have reached that dubious decision, the family will consist of little more than someone's interpretation of rights. Given that unstable legal climate, it is certain that some self-possessed judge somewhere will soon rule that three men, or three women, can marry. Or five men and two women. Or four and four. Who will be able to deny them that right? The guarantee is implied, we will be told, by the Constitution. Those who disagree will continue to be seen as hatemongers and bigots. Indeed, those charges are already being leveled against Christians who espouse biblical values. How about group marriage? Or marriage between daddies and little girls? Or marriage between a man and his donkey? Anything allegedly linked to civil rights will be doable, and the legal underpinnings for marriage will have been destroyed." Now, that's more or less a prophecy. Not a divine prophecy, but a prediction.
[...]
And that's why it [same-sex marriage] will destroy marriage. It will undermine the traditional relationship between men and women. It has happened in the Netherlands. Young people are not getting married. When you go in that direction, you confuse the meaning of marriage, and then it is destroyed. The family is destroyed. That is the foundation for Western civilizations, and I tell you it will bring the destruction of this nation and many others if we go in that direction. Mort Kondracke said I'm scary for that reason. Well, OK, Mort, fine, you disagree, but I think you're wrong.