Saturday, September 12, 2009

Doing Something Old School to "Protect Marriage"

One of my favorite blogs is the Slog, the blog of the Stranger, Seattle's alternate weekly, and edited by the sex advice columnist Dan Savage, who writes Savage Love, and with the help of his readers gave relatively innocent words like "pegging," "saddlebacking," and "Santorum" alternative meanings, all of which have something to do with anal sex.  Google these words if you want to know what I'm referring to.  Anyway, Dan Savage is gay and so same-sex marriage is important to him. 

In one of his blog posts yesterday, he found a new initiative to "protect" marriage in California.  Check out this website: RescueMarriage.org.  Like most liberals, I opposed efforts to prohibit same-sex marriages, for a variety of reasons - consenting adults should be able to love who they want to love.  While most so-called "Christians" strongly oppose same-sex marriage, it should be noted that Jesus wiped away the old law (Leviticus), and the only part of the New Testament that refers to homosexuality comes from Paul.  And while Paul should be respected, his word isn't law.

On the other hand, Jesus arguably opposed all divorces.  In fact, that's why even today the Catholic Church does not sanction divorce.  Instead the Catholic Church annuls marriages, that is, it declares that the marriage never existed.  And to some degree, I have to agree with the Catholic approach.  Of course, I'm a lawyer, and so the legalistic approach speaks to me on very deep levels.

That said, I don't think that divorce should be illegal anywhere.  Keeping two people together who don't want to be is a recipe for very bad things.  We all know of people who are together and shouldn't be, and in those instances, divorce is a godsend (no pun intended).  But if we're going to use Christian law to govern our relationships, then let's be consistent.

3 comments:

  1. My problem with Gay Marriage comes from a few different angles, but the most important one comes from the equal rights stand...

    Even I, a conservative Christian, could support Gay Marriage as a social policy, if you also allow Polygamy to be legal...If you are not going to allow Polygamy, you can't allow Gay Marriage.

    If "consenting adults should be able to love who they want to love", then limiting it to only one partner seems arbitrary and discriminatory.

    Don't get me started on the draconian prostitution laws. :-)

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  2. Interesting. . .I suppose that if the proper steps were taken to prevent any kind of abuse, then polyamory could work. It would certainly be consistent. I mentioned this in an earlier post, but its worth mentioning again - its odd that Christianity has never had a history of polygamy. Judiasm does, as does Islam, and both are derived from the same culture and traditions as Christianity.

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  3. Christ did come to bring a "New Covenant"

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