Gay Marriage... Again

When are we going to get over our brainless obsession with who people are attracted to or have sex with? Seriously.

This "debate" has been going on for... what... twenty years now? It's time to just get over ourselves and let homosexuals be as miserable as the rest of us. I realize that my words here won't settle this debate, but maybe they'll give people some stuff to chew on...

1) The Religious Issue

Marriage is not now, nor has it ever been in modern times what it was in Mosiac times or even in Jesus' time. In Biblical times, marriage was a way to have legitimate sons to leave your property to. Since women were not allowed to own property at that time, were, in fact, considered nothing more than incubators for a man's "seed", they were considered property and were "given" in marriage as such. And the modern idea of dating? Forget about it! No father would leave his daughter alone with a man who wasn't her husband.

As far as the Biblical quotes about homosexuality go, these fall into two camps. The Old Testament and the New. In the old, the ban on homosexuality was exclusively a ban on MALE homosexuality. Why? Well, again, women were only considered peripheral in the issue of children. Also, women were not considered sexual creatures. They were not believed to enjoy sex at that time, but to endure it. So it was unthinkable that a woman would seek sex the way that a man did. The New Testament ban on homosexuality, if you read those passages closely, also refer to "revelers" and "gossips". And yet there's no religious group outside city hall carrying signs that say "Big Mouths Go To Hell!"

What about Sodom? Sodom was destroyed because of homosexuality, right? It's pretty clear. Except that it's not. First off, the term sodomy refers to ALL oral and anal copulation, not just those between people of the same sex. Also, if people would READ their Bibles instead of simply taking someone else's word for what it says, they would find Ezekiel 16:49. "Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy." Doesn't that pretty much describe the republican platform in the twentieth century? Add to that everything that Jesus said about loving your neighbor and not judging one another and you have a very different view of the Biblical view of how we should treat homosexuals.

2) Unchanging Marriage

Another argument is that marriage should be defined as a union between a man and a woman because that's the way it always has been, amen.

Except that it hasn't.

I've already pointed out that marriage was an entirely different concept in Biblical days than it is now. Among other things, men could have multiple wives in Biblical times, while women were limited to one husband.

But that's not the only change. Through the twentieth century Jews were not allowed to marry Gentiles. In my lifetime, marriage has been changed again, allowing marriage between white and black people. And the debate over that looked an awful lot like the current debate.

Another thing to remember is that, until the last couple of hundred years, their was no such thing as a secular authority. All authority was religious authority. Heck, up until the 1400's, priests, bishops and popes were allowed to marry. This changed because it muddied the water that divided the priest's property from the church's property.

3) Civil Opposition to Gay Marriage

We have NEVER decided civil rights in this country based on popular opinion. Ever. As a matter of fact, if you look at the two big civil rights struggles of the twentieth century, the equality of women and black people with white men, these things were passed in the face of overwhelming civil opposition. In the first case, when sufferage was passed, only white men were allowed to vote. If it were left up to a vote, do you think that white men would give that portion of their power away? The same thing happened during the civil rights era when only white men and women could vote. I repeat that we have NEVER granted civil rights based on a vote and we shouldn't start now.

I laud the president for taking such a clear stand on gay marriage, especially in an election year. I was gravely disappointed during the 2008 election when he said that he wouldn't support gay marriage, and am proud of him now.

Peace.

Randal