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CallaFirestormBW -> RE: Gay marriage (10/22/2008 10:01:28 AM)
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"Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and render unto God what is God's"... Marriage is a -religious- ceremony. Christian, Pagan, Native American, etc... the origins of 'marriage' have always been the sanctifying of a relationship before whatever "gods" happen to be present for those folks. It has been secularized, but it was, and always has been, first and foremost, a religious ceremony, binding a man and woman under the hand of whatever god(s) they happen to believe in.
It is only in modern times that the US Government, unbounded (supposedly) by any religious predisposition, established -secular- "marriage", enabling a duly recognized official to "fill in" for a priest/minister/etc., in much the same way that a ship's Captain was allowed to do under British Marine Law, or a mayor was allowed to do in the Middle Ages, to buy a couple time until a duly authorized clergy of the Church of England could make the circuit to marry them.
I say get the government out of the marriage business entirely. Enable individuals to enter into civil contracts of cohabitation in any permutation they like. Require said individuals to bear the responsibility for proper contracting of these contracts, and allow them to be registered, for a fee, with the state in recognition of the contract, in the same way that a business registers. Let the -churches- have marriage back, and leave it as a sacred entity for the folks who need and want it to be that. Don't give any secular "benefits" for marriage. Require registration of parentage when a birth certificate is filed (as many "parents" as wish to be responsible for said child... but at -least- one adult taking responsibility for each birth registered), and base child support and maintenance on these registrations of birth.
Arrange insurance so that an individual may include any designated individual on their insurance, for a supplemental fee. Children can be insured by any or all parents, and benefits may be sub-divided among policies to assure full coverage of children, or different children in a household may be covered by different adults, as long as all the kids in a household are cared for.
Why is that so bloody hard to sort out..? That way, the Churches can have "marriage" as their own little private religious domain, and the rest of us can have civil contracts spelling out whatever permutation of relationship we prefer, without religious overtones of any sort. "Weird" people won't 'defile' marriage, because marriage will be returned to its historical status as a religious ceremony, and the law will recognize -any- contract of cohabitation, regardless of origin, religious or secular, with equal legal status.
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