Image via WikipediaFirst let me reiterate my basic beliefs about homosexuality. I believe homosexuals are born homosexual therefore I do not believe homosexuality is a conscious choice; I think it is in the DNA of the person. I have blogged on the subject many times and have laid out my rationale for my beliefs which also includes common sense; why in the hell would a healthy heterosexual EVER want to become a homosexual; that just does not make any sense at all!
Secondly I have blogged about allowing gay marriage on a number of occasions and I have talked about Europe where EVERYONE has to get married in a court which grants civil union status to any couple applying for a civil union certificate. You can choose to follow up the state ceremony with a religious ceremony BUT the state ceremony is the ONLY one that confirms the union as LEGAL.
In our country, you too can get married in a court by a judge BUT here a priest or minister ALSO has the LEGAL right to marry couples.
The issue of gay marriage can be looked at from a variety of positions which include social, cultural, legal and most of all, religious.
Let me tackle the social institution we call marriage and how it has evolved through history.
Cultural anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowsky is the man to go to for background information. We all know that originally marriage was a union formed for procreation and child rearing; plain and simple and it worked very well for a very long time and still does for those who want to do just that.
Today marriage is less of an institution and more of a contract between two people. Today only 40% of Americans consider children as important to a marriage. Nearly 38% of children are born out of wedlock today. Many children are raised in one-parent households where a marriage was never a possibility.
Today there are many ways to reproduce and bear children so a strictly male / female union is not required.
So if marriage today has been demoted to a simple contract between two people why do gays want the word “marriage” in their “contract”?
I found out that gays, just like hetero couples, want to be “married” instead of just “joined” for all the social and cultural reasons that marriage represents. They want a wedding conducted by a “spiritual” person, they want rings, receptions and they want all the trappings of a married life. Some call marriage a part of the foundation of civilization and they want to be a part of that civilization.
More later…
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