I was having a conversation with a pastor friend of mine and his argument is that marriage stems from the Bible, that it is by and large a biblical term, and that forcing a change of definition of the word is an oppression of the Christian people. Excuse me? An oppression of the Christian people? As far as I understand it, no one wants to force Christians into homosexual marriages. If you believe something is wrong: Don't do it! It really is that simple.
The church as a whole stands against homosexuality, and should not be forced to conduct marriages for homosexual couples. However, they also should not be able to dictate who is and isn't married by law. Those churches who do stand behind gay marriage can have their pastor/priest/bishop etc. marry people if they want, otherwise a justice of the peace or a similar individual can conduct the ceremony. We finally have a president who was willing to take a stance for gay marriage. And sure the reasons for this stance were political, but you know what? Who cares? It's still a pro-stance and it is a step in the right direction for marriage equality.
not President Obama's actual thought process
There is no decent argument against homosexuality that is not based upon religion. None. Here are a few arguments, that don't hold up.
Many people say that a child needs both a mother and a father in order to grow to be a well-rounded person. Too bad that addicts are allowed to marry, and abusers, and any number of morally debase individuals: as long as one is biologically a male and the other is biologically a female. So by those standards single parenthood should also be illegal. It doesn't matter how qualified that single parent is.
What about the sanctity of marriage?? Marriage has ALWAYS been between one man and one women. Except, you know, when marriage was between one man and as many wives as he wanted
(see: Old Testament).
Okay but this one is logical, right? Marriage is between a man and a woman. If we change that and allow men to marry men and women to marry women where does it stop? What is someone wants to marry their pet horse? Or how about a baby? God, perhaps Crazy Tim just REALLY loves his tractor, can he marry it? It becomes a free for all! But no, no it doesn't. Allowing same sex individuals to marry doesn't open the door to any of that. A person is a legal adult at 18 and can marry at that age. No one is really challenging that. In some states the age is lower with parental consent. (If we are going to challenge marriage laws, how about New Hampshire? With parental consent males as young as 14 and females as young as 13 can legally wed. Just...why?) But the point is, children will not be married off. And inter-species marriage? First off, I don't really have a problem with it. Sure it is creepy as hell, but if that is what makes a person happy, hey, go for it. However animals (and farm equipment for that matter) can not give consent to marriage, so that probably isn't going to happen.
Let's get real people. When it comes down to it, people who don't want other people to get married, are just upset that what was once their special thing is now open to a broader array of individuals. The same kinds of people who now oppose gay marriage opposed interracial marriage in the past. Now, those people look pretty silly...
1 comment:
Rebuttal sounds almost defiant. I'm not sure if I like it.
But I loved the post. It was intelligent and well-organized. That's a really effective form of persuasive writing (per English 108 with Dr. Wurtz), devaluing arguments. If you shot down what they intend to say, then you have the upper hand.
Writing style aside, I liked what you had to say. It was meaningful. Although not as emotional as you often write, which I found interesting. It's like you slipped into this new rock-hard debater in this post.
So... good job. :) I'll share fosho.
Post a Comment