INCITE
Incite -- (v) 1: give an incentive; 2: provoke or stir up; "incite a riot"; 3: urge on; cause to act
Wednesday, March 03, 2004

 
My comment on gay "marriage"
Written by: Beck

I'd like to point out certain historical, rather than religious, aspects of marriage, and how they're relevant to this whole discussion.

The institution of marriage (I refuse to speak of "heterosexual marriage," as by definition, marriage IS heterosexual) was a very necessary civic and social institution which dates back to the earliest periods of recorded civilization. Why? Because women needed the protection afforded by having the men who fathered children upon them held responsible for their actions. The tie can be spiritual or legal--that aspect isn't really what's key. Men, by nature, want to sow their seed as widely as possible. Often, though certainly not always, those men want to spend the rest of their time doing ANYTHING BUT taking care of those children and women. They just want the nookie. Without marriage there was little to nothing preventing them from taking no responsibility for the nasty pranks their sperm tended to pull. The alternative is to have society provide that support in the style of Plato's Republic in which children are outright communally raised and don't even know their parents. While that might sound good on paper to some, I don't think it's even necessary to explain why children raised by society instead of by two loving parents is not effective, ideal, good, or in any way desirable.

As such, marriage loses its meaning when the potential for procreation is removed from the equation.

I'm not opposed to civil unions between homosexuals (Answerman might have a rather different opinion on this point than I). Married people enjoy certain legal protections and benefits which are necessary, once again, for protecting women and children--things like inheritance and the carry-over of pension benefits in the event of the death of the pensioner. There is no reason why a gay man shouldn't be able to designate a beneficiary for a benefit, such as a pension, which he earned as a consequence of his years of employment in the past.

When you realize just how many conservatives are opposed not to civil unions and their inherent marriage-like legal structure, but only to assigning the label of Marriage to those unions, one has to wonder why the debate on gay "marriage" is so heated. The only possible answer, then, is that elements of the radical left are bent on taking away that which their opponents consider of value. Their motive, then, must be one of purely spiteful bitterness. I welcome any arguments to the contrary--I delight in punching holes in irrational thought.

And another thing... if you redefine marriage as simply being the "union of people who care deeply about each other," then what reason is there to object to polygamy? Or the incestuous marriages? Or even more perverted things? Is it so wrong to fear that opening the door to gay "marriage" ultimately opens the door to the eventual complete devaluation of marriage in any form? Is it so wrong to think that this is leading us down the road to the ultimate demise of the institution of marriage entirely? Why get married, when the only significance of the act is attainment of certain legal benefits no different from a corporate partnership? If Enron were still around, there would probably be traders right now making markets on shares of married couples. Hell, it makes more sense than trading bandwidth.


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John Beck

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