20090713

there'salwaysone

Happens every time there's a discussion somewhere about gay marriage. Hell, I did it myself a few times. Some clown tries to dodge the whole issue saying, "well we should just do away with all marriage, get the government out of the marriage contract an just let churches and couples do what they want."
It's nice for you that you've found a way to pretend to have such an original and edgy interpretation of things -as opposed to just imitating every other a-cap* who says the exact same thing. But here's a little human compassion test for you: you're in the voting booth, and there's a referendum with two choices, keep government marriage restricted to straights, or extend government marriage to include all committed couples. Which society would you rather live in?

There are some problems with the "marriage is just a religious institution, leave it up to the churches" take. Specifically, that marriage was not just a religious institution. It was a civil institution used to formulate alliances and property management schemes. It was very often performed by priests of one stripe or another, but never exclusively by priests, and "priest" has always been a community/social role first, with any actual communications with otherworldly spirits being secondary at least in a time management sense. Marriage was adopted as a sacrament by the Catholic church as they became the official church of the Roman Empire, but even that didn't make it into an exclusively religious thing. Moreover, in terms of social evolution and community standards, marriage has been extended and translated into a commitment to romantic love and mutual support over the last century or so, which has pushed the institution further and further away from an exclusively religious thing.

I've heard from several people over the years that marriage itself is outdated, or not appropriate to the type of relationship they have, and that's fine. That's further evolution of the idea and eventually new forms of social convention and institutions will develop to account for that. Meanwhile don't throw a whole social/cultural complex back to the faith healers and witch doctors, and don't sacrifice it to the dogmatic belief that government is something wholly other and distinct from all other forms of human social organization.

*a-cap = anarcho-capitalists, pseudo-anarchists (usually not actually posessed of capital nor practicing capitalism themselves) inspired by the likes of Rothbard and Von Mises, believing that pure laissez-faire is the foundation of universal competitive enrichment
 
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