I thought the gay marriage debate was all about people being uncomfortable with the fact that people of the same sex would marry. Something that violates religious tenants (well id violates it for most religions). But, I was wrong. There is one additional issue concerning gay marriage that I didn't even think of, but those who fear it did.
The Fear: Death of Marriage: What those against gay marriage also fear is that it will make people less inclined to marry in the first place. They feel that, in time, the idea and concept of gay marriage (along with multi person marriages to follow) will disrupt the nature of the sacrament of marriage. It is feared that once it becomes main stream that people will not care about the idea and concept of marriage and simply move from partner to partner once they tire of the person they are with.
The Fear 2: What about the kids: This is mainly an issue, not just because the religious sacrament of marriage will be eroded, but because of the traditional family unit. Every study shows that a traditional family creates happier healthier children. This is also true for some gay couples who have children who have been allowed to adopt (whether any of the studies are biased in favor of gays or of traditional marriage I don't know, so take this with a grain of salt). So to another degree they fear broken homes if marriage (the commitment it brings tying two people together) begins to degrade.
My Opinion: For both of these fears, I agree that the potential is there for both to occur. We want people to be committed to one another and more importantly to be committed to raising a family together (gay, straight, or multi). Family units provide a child with the best chance of growing up and achieving success due in part to the fact that a father and mother (or dad and dad/mom and mom) are always around to influence their child so that they are disciplined to follow the path to success more often. In other words they set them straight (not the marriage thing, the right path in life thing). However, the marriage concept is already being eroded as time goes on. It has really nothing to do with gay marriage and more to do with our associating marriage less and less with religion (gay marriage is a symptom, not a cause). Governments in the past have tried to support traditional marriage via laws and through tax relief (part of the reason gays want to marry is so that they can be recognized under the law and achieve those benefits and privileges), due to many at the time supporting the traditional marriage structure. However, this may all have to change for if it becomes re-recognized as part of faith, these benefits may change or be discarded. Worry not, as there are still ways to recognize that two people co-own property, and have a say in medical and what not. It's called a contract which can include property sharing agreements, last wills in testament and more. So even if government gets out of the business (I wish it would) there are other ways to get around the issue.
Conclusion: Our secular society has caused marriages downfall. Slowly but surely religion is failing to attract parishioners as faith has stagnated into people just moving with the motions like a robot. The anti gay marriage folks are better off arguing that marriage is a religious sacrament to stop gay marriage (however some groups within the protestant faith do marry gay couples). Do I have a problem with gay couples? No, I just have a problem when government tries to tell me or anyone who can marry who (age is an exception, no 9 year olds marring 40 year olds) like they did before the civil rights movement blocking mixed race couples. If you want to fix marriage, in my opinion, fix the faiths so that people stop acting like robots in a church and get marriage out of government’s hands. I do understand though that some pro marriage people see government as a way of supporting and enforcing traditional marriage, but like anything with government, a law can be changed when it suits the politicians needs. It is foolish to put any faith in government to support traditional marriage, let alone gay marriage. Government sees marriage as a source of revenue, not as a binding union between two people (3 or more once multi person marriages come to be recognized). Both sides are being used from my perspective and it disgusts me. Just get government out of the business; it is not there place to being taking money off the happiness of others.
I am done talking about gay marriage for now, unless something else comes up that I believe is important. If there is a particular issue concerning marriage you, my dear readers, would like me to address, write a comment here or on my face book page and I will answer it as soon as possible either in a reply or a blog post. Thanks as always for reading.
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