My Rambling Thoughts On Marriage

by Scott M. Williamson

Those who are opposed to gay marriage argue this on the following reasons. The Bible, the destruction of the institute of marriage, stability for child rearing, and Religious First Amendment Rights.

Strictly speaking, the marriage law is a law of contracts. We do not have to go to a church, synagogue, or mosque to get married. To be married, the one requirement is to get a license from the government. Under the US Constitution, Amendment 14, the government can not "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

Making gay marriage legal would not infringe on Churches rights. A church already has the right to refuse to marry anyone. Allowing gays to marry would not change this. Many churches refuse to perform marriage ceremonies for people who have been divorced, are not a member of their church or denomination. Many ministers require premarital counseling and deny marriage ceremonies to couples who refuse or who do not satisfy the minister during the counseling. Nothing in the law requires a religion to perform a marriage for ANYONE.

While there is no clear cut Biblical passage that shows anything but marriage of a man and a women (though some argue David and Jonathon and Ruth and Naomi), there are many other marriage examples in the Bible that we do not codify. We allow divorce, the Bible does not. President Reagan, Senator John McCain, Mayor Giuliani, Sen. Fred Thompson, and many others have been married more then once. The Bible forbids cheating on your spouse, but we have no law against it. If so Presidents Clinton, Kennedy, Roosevelt, Rep. Newt Gingrich, and many many more in Washington DC would be in jail. (Maybe there should be a law....)

One in two marriages end in divorce. One in three children in the US are born out of marriage. Seven in every ten African American child is born to a one parent home. If Washington wants to protect children and marriage this is where they should start. Brittany Spears was married for 55 hours in Las Vegas. There are shows on TV like the Bachelor, Bachelorett. How to Marry a Millionaire. All of which trivializes stable marriage. There is no out cry here from Washington.

If Marriage is codified to promote the stable raising of children then why is it legal to marry if you are too old to produce children? Why do we allow those who are not able to have children to marry? Should it not be illegal for a man who is married to get a vasectomy? What about people who just do not want to have children. Why on earth are we letting them marry. If marriage is for raising children why did we let Senator John Kerry or Pat Buchanan get married. Neither of them have children. President George Washington was married and never had any children. Can you believe we let him be our first President? What kind of example of a Godly American values marriage is that?

If the goal of Marriage is to promote stable relationships, why do we deny this to gay people then complain that they can not commit, and complain that they go from bed to bed. I agree, for a healthy stable society government should encourage stable relationships. ALL of them. Some argue that allowing gays to marry is a slippery slope and the next thing we would allow is for brothers and sisters to marry, people to marry animals, people to marry in multiples, Adults to marry children. This is simply ridiculous! First of all, as already pointed out, marriage is a contract. The law already requires people to be 18 to enter a contract. The goal of marriage IS to provide stability to relationships and society. People marrying animals, relatives, or multiple people would not bring stability. People are more likely to have luck committing to one person then they would to several.

Every reason given to "protect" marriage is simply ridiculous and fear driven. The more we educate people the more they come to our side of the issue. If I had a penny for every time someone discovered I was gay and said, "I had no idea, I did not know there were gay people like you." I would be rich. People who see gay Christians, gay stable relationships, gays who break stereotypes, gay doctors, teachers, etc slowly start seeing us as simply people. We no longer hold the gay label. They then come to defend our right along side us. For then they see we are JUST LIKE THEM. If we are denied rights they are given then who is next. They see if gays are just like me and they do not have these rights whats to stop governments from taking these rights from me.

This has been another installment of Scott's ramblings.