Same-Sex Marriage Makes Sense
If you take God out of the equation!
Leading voices in the fight to legalize same-sex marriage frequently ask the question, ‘Do heterosexual married people have the right to say who can and cannot marry?’
No we don’t.
That answer begs us to ask ‘Who, then, has the right?’ and in so doing it harkens us back to the inception of marriage. The real question that we need to answer is this: Who designed marriage?
This is at the very heart of the ‘One Man + One Woman’ versus ‘Same-Sex’ marriage debate. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that if we take the One who designed marriage out of the equation, any definition we come up with for marriage makes sense. For who is to say what can and cannot be called marriage?
If marriage is to be defined by people, an allowance for ‘any individuals wishing to demonstrate their commitment to one another publicly’ makes sense.
If marriage is to be defined by people, then needs for expediency, the administrative, social and legal hurdles that some in committed relationships experience should be enough to qualify any shared living arrangement for marriage.
It is at this point that proponents of same-sex marriage may accuse me of fear tactics – claiming that by allowing homosexual couples to marry we step onto a slippery-slope that will lead to legalizing polygamy, polymory (group marriage) and so on. That is not my point. My point is simply this: if we take the One who created marriage out of the equation, than every voice – every voice! – has as much right as the next. Every argument bears the same authority.
The debate over same-sex marriage is not about the legitimacy of any couples’ love for one another. This debate is not about any couples’ rights under the law. It is not about equality. It is a debate over the very definition of marriage, a definition that has not changed since it was instituted – the union of one man and one woman; two becoming one – by the One who designed it.
Leading voices in the fight to legalize same-sex marriage frequently ask the question, ‘Do heterosexual married people have the right to say who can and cannot marry?’
No we don’t.
That answer begs us to ask ‘Who, then, has the right?’ and in so doing it harkens us back to the inception of marriage. The real question that we need to answer is this: Who designed marriage?
This is at the very heart of the ‘One Man + One Woman’ versus ‘Same-Sex’ marriage debate. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that if we take the One who designed marriage out of the equation, any definition we come up with for marriage makes sense. For who is to say what can and cannot be called marriage?
If marriage is to be defined by people, an allowance for ‘any individuals wishing to demonstrate their commitment to one another publicly’ makes sense.
If marriage is to be defined by people, then needs for expediency, the administrative, social and legal hurdles that some in committed relationships experience should be enough to qualify any shared living arrangement for marriage.
It is at this point that proponents of same-sex marriage may accuse me of fear tactics – claiming that by allowing homosexual couples to marry we step onto a slippery-slope that will lead to legalizing polygamy, polymory (group marriage) and so on. That is not my point. My point is simply this: if we take the One who created marriage out of the equation, than every voice – every voice! – has as much right as the next. Every argument bears the same authority.
The debate over same-sex marriage is not about the legitimacy of any couples’ love for one another. This debate is not about any couples’ rights under the law. It is not about equality. It is a debate over the very definition of marriage, a definition that has not changed since it was instituted – the union of one man and one woman; two becoming one – by the One who designed it.
1 Comments:
Interesting!
The idea of "First Principles" or foundational definitions is so key.
In my comments, I appealed to an innate definition of the word marriage. But our definitions actually come from someplace. Our society didn't just evolve definitions, if you believe in the Biblical account.
All definitions, all principles, all physical laws, all properties, they ALL flow out of God... "In Him we live and move and have our very being."
D--
By Higher Up, Further In, at 2/17/2006 2:06 PM
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