Posted on 11/24/2003 8:38:19 AM PST by xzins
Rogue court activism, and messed-up people with (evidently) far too much time on their hands and far too rich resources, have once again set out to push America in a direction in which it ought not go.
I speak, of course, of "gay" (homosexual) marriage.
My intent here is not to focus on the whole issue of homosexuality. I have a more modest aim. I want to address one argument which is heard frequently from the pro-"gay"-marriage faction: "Nobody has ever explained to me how 'gay' marriage threatens the institution of marriage."
While I find this claim initially hard to believe, I'm not sure I've ever seen a direct response. So here is my own modest effort. I phrase it in the form of a question: "Does counterfeit money threaten genuine currency?"
The answer to that is that, of course, counterfeit money does threaten genuine currency. It devalues it. If a $1 bill bearing picture of Bill Clinton on it, run off on someone's HP printer, suddenly is accepted as being as legitimate as a genuine $1 bill, then all currency is devalued. The broader the acceptance, and the greater the proliferation, the more devastating the blow to currency.
For this reason, a man shall forsake his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh
(Genesis 2:24, my translation)
Here are the elements, in a nutshell:
That is marriage, in God's eyes. All variations are offensive to Him, and destructive to man.
Marriage has already taken serious blows. It is easy to get into, and easy to get out of. A man stands before God and everyone else, and swears the most solemn oath imaginable that he will be faithful to his bride alone. But if he then turns into a serial adulterer, he is protected from consequences. As far as I know, he cannot be jailed nor sued for breach of contract. In fact, he might become a very popular figure. Even President.
Or, if the wife in this solemn relationship gets bored, or finds marriage more demanding than she anticipated, she can get right out of it. Any reason will do, or none at all. Just fill out the paperwork, hit the legal "reboot" button, and she's back on the market.
All of this damages marriage. All of this lowers the estimation and value of marriage. All of this cheapens the institution.
And yet, even amid all that, society for centuries has been clear on at least one element: marriage involves a woman and a man.
That is what today's moral nihilists are trying to change.
Of course it does.
It harms many other things as well -- the individuals involved, society, any poor children who get caught up in any way in the resultant monstrous abomination. But marriage is harmed by the redefinition of a basic word. "Marriage" by definition cannot be homosexual. If it is broadened to include one sexual perversion, there is no rational reason why it should not be broadened to include every sexual perversion. Advocates don't like this point very much; I think that is because it is irrefutable.
And so, if "marriage" means everything, then it necessarily means nothing. A word with no fixed definition has no definition. A word that can mean anything at all means nothing at all.
This is just a little glimpse at a teensy bit of the harm this insane notion involves.
It all goes to prove the point made often in Scripture, and summed up nicely in Jeremiah 8:9b. The prophet says: "behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD, so what wisdom is in them?" The slightest rejection of God's Word necessarily and unavoidably moves one just that far in the direction of insanity.
And so we see here.
The answer to that is that, of course, counterfeit money does threaten genuine currency. It devalues it. If a $1 bill bearing picture of Bill Clinton on it, run off on someone's HP printer, suddenly is accepted as being as legitimate as a genuine $1 bill, then all currency is devalued. The broader the acceptance, and the greater the proliferation, the more devastating the blow to currency.
Not quite right, even by the response he's looking for. If a Bill Clinton $1 bill became accepted as worth $1, it would just be an object of trade. It would be so obviously not a dollar bill that it wouldn't be a problem. It would become a form of barter in collectables.
It's when a counterfeit bill is mistaken for the real thing that counterfeiting becomes a problem.
The question is whether gay marriage is a counterfeit dollar bill or a British pound -- a different currency, but currency nonetheless.
Of course it does, and that's the underlying intent of the entire movement. The Catholic Church, and other Orthodox Christian Churches hold that marriage is sacred, a holy Sacrament that was instituted and blessed by God. Be certain that Satan is behind the "gay marriage" agenda, because it is Christianity that suffers the deepest wound from this perverted debauchery.
The answer to that is that, of course, counterfeit money does threaten genuine currency. It devalues it. If a $1 bill bearing picture of Bill Clinton on it, run off on someone's HP printer, suddenly is accepted as being as legitimate as a genuine $1 bill, then all currency is devalued.
That is all that needs to be said
Marriage = Man + Woman
Deviant = Man + Man
The issue here is not religious recognition of gay unions (let's keep the word 'marriage' out for now). There are religions that already recognize, and perform, such unions. Other religions will probably never recognize gay unions, regardless of whether or not those unions are legally recognized.
No, gay unions will have little or no effect on the religious concept of marriage. The bigger issue is whether the state should recognize such unions. The best solution may be for the state to simply get out of the marriage game. Rather, private persons should be allowed to enter into whatever contractual agreements they desire (from a legal point of view, marriage is really just a peculiar type of contract). This would resolve a lot of the issues regarding wills, disposition of property, the right to visit a dying partner in the hospital (which is a big issue for gay couples- there have been many instances where hospitals have not allowed a homosexual person in to see their partner in intensive care since they were not a family member). Maybe getting government out of the marriage game would make this whole issue go away.
In our current culture, that parent-child link is under assault from many sides. Homosexual marriage assists in that assault.
It is in the interest of the state to prevent the parent-child link from weakening further. One thing the state can do is to ban homosexual marriage.
Frankly, as much as I despise the thought of it, there's not much left of marriage to be harmed. No-fault hetero divorce has done irreparable damage. This is just the next logical step.
For a secular analogy, Sodomite "marriage" harms marriage about as much as [insert your social program of choice here] harms the Constitution. There's precious little left to be harmed by it.
Come, Lord Jesus.
This makes marriage one step less a Godly institution and one step more meaningless as the article said. When a word can mean anything then it means nothing.
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