Assignment task: Gay Marriage: Societal Suicide? Written by Charles Colson
1. List the claList the claims Colson makes about the effect on children being raised by single parents, particularly by single mothers
2. What is Colsons's thesis? Where does he state it directly?
3. What evidence does Colson present to link same-sex marriage to an increase in out-of-wedlock births? To link single-parent households with the increase in crime, early parenthood, and other problems of young people? How effective do you find this evidence?
4. What other arguments does Colson make against same-sex marriage?
5. Analyse the reasoning in Colson's argument. What are its claims and assumptions?
6. Why does Colson put quotation marks around the word marriage when referring to same-sex unions?
7. What is the effect of the question with which Colson opens his essay?
8. What is the purpose of paragraph 7?
9. What role does cause and effect play in the essay?