For The Love of Gay: Pt. 2 “Mawwiage”

“Mawwiage. Mawwiage is what bwings us togethaw today. Mawwiage, that bwessed awwangement, that dweam wivin a dweam.” – The Princess Bride

I love being married!  Marriage is a challenging, fierce, comforting, annoying, crazy, sexy, frustrating, painfully ordinary, absolutely extraordinary, infuriating, touchingly beautiful roller coaster ride.  If it’s your cup of tea, I highly recommend it!

However. . .

We’ve all been duped; right, left, middle – every last one of us.  We’ve been brainwashed by the idea that governmental intrusion within the Sacrament of marriage is not only needed/justified, but somehow appropriate – and it’s absolutely not.

Why is gay marriage a ballot issue?

Every election our votes are steered by the notion that our government is capable of navigating by this fabricated moral compass and it’s not.  MONEY is Washington’s compass.  Realize that strategists are busy routing our vote, wrapped in the cloak of moral guilt, straight to the bank.

 

Our current obsession with the gay marriage debacle is clouding our vision, making us more susceptible to various levels of oppression.  We are so concerned with whom FREE people are choosing to mate that our attention is conveniently diverted from the really important issues – like the current administration waltzing us in to a $14 trillion dollar debt and yet another WAR.

We need to wake the hell up and get educated so we can move on and rebuild our nation.

A Brief History of Mawwiage

In every culture around the world there is evidence of matrimonial-like understandings whose histories and rituals differ wildly.  American roots can be traced to every square inch of our planet.  However, it must be stated that our modern understanding of marriage is based in European tradition and hardly represents how “marriage” has evolved throughout global human history.

To begin, marital partnerships have been around since before recorded history and most assuredly did not begin in the church.  Church hierarchy didn’t even begin until sometime during the 2^nd century (depending on who you ask).

Yes, marriage pre-dates the church and the canonized Bible.

The early definition of marriage looked nothing like it does today; it was primitive and oppressive.  In short, women were possessions whose worth was measured by the function of her womb.  Women had no rights and were used crudely by men as vehicles by which to pass along his seed.  She was often paid for the service of her uterus and love was not necessarily part of the equation.  (Paid?!?  How did we lose that gig?)

Depending on your source, it was between the 12^th & 13^th centuries whereby marriages required a blessing from the family.  Familial consent led to practices such as arranged marriages, official dowries, the joining of surnames and so on.  It wasn’t until the 16^th century that the state even got involved.  The formalization of marriage took a winding path from common law “Fleet Marriages”, to civil unions, to church sanctioned marriages, to the modern day legal contract.

All marriages aimed to achieve certain goals:  official validation of the matrimonial union, legitimacy of children/heirs and an official understanding of rights and inheritance.

The role of God within marriage varied and was wholly dependent on the social class and/or religious affiliation of those involved.

Mawwiage in the Bible
The Bible is often used as a source/weapon in the modern marriage debate.  Yet some of the matrimonial practices of our ancestors would result in funeral picketing.

The Bible indeed identifies marriage as a union between woman and man.  However, if we are going to cite the Bible as an indisputable source, we must consider ALL of its references.  For example: Abraham gave his wife away to King Abimelek; Jacob/Solomon/David & many others were polygamists; women were property; concubines and infidelity were common; female consent to marriage was not required; women had no rights and the list goes on.

As a Christian body we have deemed the above practices archaic and primitive.  We have allowed “marriage” to evolve and be redefined MANY times.

So why has the evolution stopped?

Modern Mawital Mess

The fact is marriage has always been pretty messy and less than ideal, but EVERYONE must take responsibility for our current chaos.  After all, it was a Republican Congress and Democratic President Bill Clinton that signed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996:

Section 2. Powers Reserved to the States
No State, territory, or possession of the United States, or Indian tribe, shall be required to give effect to any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any other State, territory, possession, or tribe respecting a relationship between persons of the same sex that is treated as a marriage under the laws of such other State, territory, possession, or tribe, or a right or claim arising from such relationship.
Section 3. Definition of Marriage (This section is currently in battle.)
In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word ‘marriage’ means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word ‘spouse’ refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.

Let me get this straight:  We’ve allowed the rights of individual States to be superseded and the GOVERNMENT to define the “Sacrament” of marriage?

***A Sacrament is defined as a “rite where God is uniquely active.”***

Hmmm.  Curious.

When I was married – in a church, after pre-marital counseling, by a proper head-of-a-church minister – our ceremony would have been canceled had we not procured the proper paperwork as ordained by the government.  WHAT?!?  You mean God won’t bless our love, consider it a Sacrament and/or honor the commitment I’ve made to my mate unless I’ve paid my $40 bucks?

What about those who are not of the Christian tradition?
All over the United States our society has blessed Atheists, Agnostics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, People into Ritualistic Body Piercings and so on to receive the “Sacrament” of marriage.

What a joke!

Today’s marriages have DEvolved into a governmentally bastardized contract that has nothing to do with God or observing even half of a Sacrament.  With 1,138 statutory provisions in which marital status is a factor in determining benefits, rights, and privileges (not to mention the rights and obligations included by State), marriage has become a “legal civil union” whether we like it or not.  Marriage is a RIGHT as defined by our governmental institution and denying RIGHTS is unequivocally unconstitutional.  “Civil unions” and “domestic partnerships” do not include the 1,138 statutory provisions and therefore DENIES the rights of gay, tax-paying citizens.

Enough is enough.  This hypocrisy has got to stop.

My husband and I did not get married when I filled out paperwork at an office where “Marriage License” was listed on the same placard as “Beer License.”  No!  We were married in front of my family, friends and God in a small Southern Church on a muggy July evening.  Our Sacrament had nothing to do with America and was a PERSONAL promise that we made to one another and to God.

At the end of the day, that is exactly what a “modern marriage” means:  a personal promise of devotion, commitment and love made by you, your mate and for some, God.

Beyond that triad – it’s no one else’s damn business.

We need to “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s” and detach our misguided understanding of marriage from this cold government contract.  Like it or not, that’s what a civil marriage license is – a legal contract.  While the damage is done and the contract is unavoidable due to taxes, social security, medical benefits, child custody, spousal bereavement and so on; we need to recognize that this legal document is in NO WAY a Sacrament.  Furthermore, no one has the right to continue to deny this contract with 1,138 rights and obligations to anyone.

We need to get back on track, people, get over this issue and keep these jackass politicians within the parameters of their job descriptions.  The government is incapable of dictating a national moral compass because it doesn’t have one!!

We are 14 trillion dollars in debt – our children are going to be poverty stricken, War is killing our young men and women – we’ve got bigger fish to fry.

So, the next time you feel the need to quibble about denying 1,138 statutory provisions to any tax-paying citizen, think about the slippery slope on which you are embarking.

What’s next?  Alice’s Confirmation?  William’s Baptism?  Zac’s Graduation?  Jenny’s Birthday?  Papa’s Funeral?