By Brendan Case, Tyler J. VanderWeele, Institute for Family Studies - Marriage is perhaps so ubiquitous among our species, and so vital across so many societies, because it promotes human flourishing in many ways at once, both meeting and harmonizing the distinctive needs and desires of men, women, and children. Today, we are effectively running a large-scale social experiment to see whether a human culture can long endure while marginalizing this “necessary society,” as Pope Leo X called it, from its traditional role in socializing sex and in nurturing children. We are sowing the wind, and should not be surprised if we reap the whirlwind.