I have a question
for my Christian friends who stand with the desire to band any marriage, but
that between a man and a woman. With
President Obama just recently announcing his support for same-sex marriage, and
North Carolina going a completely different direction… banning just about any civil union, other
than a traditional marriage, I am left with some curiosity on the Christians’
true position on marriage. Seems to me,
from the arguments I have heard there are just a couple of keep points in the
arguments:
1.
Somehow the
concept of a marriage is, and always has been, the traditional view of a single
union between and man and a woman.
2.
That somehow same-sex
marriages will destroy the sanctity of marriage.
Seems on the first
point, that the traditional view of marriage is only traditional to primarily
Christians and Jews, and even in their views, some discrepancy in their
interpretations, the Mormons claim to be Christians, yet believe in polygamy
(even if most do practice it today).
That’s just one point… In the
Middle East, a man having multiple wives is also not uncommon. I have also heard that the general view that
for Christians the Bible specifically forbids relationships between members of
the same sex. Yet, I heard a very
compelling argument by a young
gay Christian that would seem to
indication there are some interpretational discrepancies in Biblical claim of
forbidding homosexual relations.
Additionally confusing the matter is the combining of Hebrew law and
doctrine along with newer Christian law and doctrine within the canonization of
the Christian Bible. Now I have checked,
but there now come the questions of traditional marriage in all the other
theological views in the world? I don’t
know for sure, but, I have heard different things for some of other friends of
differing religious views. Finally, it
was all that long ago that a traditional of marriage excluded interracial
unions. So the question here is: Is your traditional view of marriage actually
traditional?
But it is the second
point that I find the most curious. It
would seem to me that the religious views of the sanctity of the holy bonds of
matrimony were long ago damaged beyond repair.
First, if marriage is a holy sacrament, why then did the churches not
lobby the government to stay out of the marriage business by preventing it from
issuing ‘marriage’ licenses, and disallowing a justice of the peace to perform
a marriage ceremonies. It would seem
that this would have been the time to differentiate between marriages as
defined by religious institutions and civil unions as defined for legal
purposes. Interestingly, at least here
in this country, you can have a marriage performed by a civil authority that
isn’t recognized by any church. However,
I don’t know of many churches that will marry you without that civil license,
and even if they do, it isn’t recognized as a legal union. So, it would seem that churches have accepted
that the legal definition takes precedence over the sacred. Additionally there is a practice today that
over half of all marriages go through that I would think is far more
detrimental to the sacred view of marriage…
That would be divorce, and yet I can find any real lobbying effort to
legally ban divorce in our society. Why
is that, and so to why is same-sex marriage any more detrimental to the
sanctity of marriage than divorce? I
have been happily married for 27 years next month. Never in all those years has the increasing
rate of divorce had any negative impact on the sanctity of my marriage, nor has
that of my homosexual friends’ relationships.
I see no reason to believe that allowing these friends to enter into the
loving committed bond of matrimony would likewise have a negative impact
So, bottom line, my
question is, as with most religious morals questions, why are Christians so
intent on enforcing their moral views on everyone, even outside the Christian
faith? It seems to me no one is
demanding, or even requesting, that you do something with which you have a
moral problem… And, no one is demanding
that the (our choice here) church must perform these same-sex marriages.
So what is the real
issue with same-sex marriage???
Your comments or questions
are always welcome, and I have added an email address for those not wishing to comment
openly in this forum. Emails can be sent
to recoveringcathcon@gmail.com. However, please know that if this account is used to flood me with
trash and hate mail, I will shut it down.
