Marriage Vs. Civil Unions
Nov 30th, 2004 at 5:37 pm by Susan
Big debate over at Kos on the legal future of marriage. Most of the gang seems in favor of the European arrangement - a civil ceremony, followed by a religious one.
Makes sense to me. Marriage - sacramental marriage, as it were - is a religious state, defined according to the beliefs of each church.
Now, imagine if the government decided it would re-define all church annulments according to the rules of civil law. Would anyone stand for that, I wonder?
In a land founded on religious freedom, no one has the right to tell me what to believe. And if my faith has room in its definitions for gay marriage, who the hell is some other sect to tell me because their church doesn’t agree with it, my church’s definition doesn’t count?
That would leave civil unions right where they belong: A legal contract between two parties, with rights and privileges thereof. God wouldn’t enter into it unless invited.
That’s the American way.
