If conservatives are upset about sullying the original meaning of marriage let's go back even farther and talk about ancient Mesopotamia or Egypt. Let's talk about dowries, about transferring property right between father and husband. Let's talk about the husband's surname as a cattle brand. The definition of marriage as a heterosexual union was only recently adopted by the Church as a holy union between 'man and wife'. And this is only a single chapter in a long history of marital 'bliss'.Recently adopted?
Matt 19:4-6 And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' "and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? "So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."
Six days after the whole universe was created, God made it one man and one woman. I fail to see how anyone can call that "recently adopted".
Perverts and Liberals. Totally incapable of telling the truth.
And my wife doesn't consider taking on my name "being branded like cattle".
I am a conservative and a Christian (not necessarily in that order) and I have to come down on the side of the rebuttal on this one. The institution of marriage is much more at risk as a result of no fault divorce than it is if homosexuals are allowed to be legally married. Frankly, I do not understand the fear over this. Absolutely no one is personally effected by gay marriage except the gay couples who marry. The ONLY argument I have against it is that I can see gays eventually attemtping to sue churches for refusing to marry them and calling it discrimination. I doubt they would get far with that, but who really knows.
If we believe in traditional marriage as an institution (and I do), then it is up to each one of us to keep our marriages and families healthy. With divorce rates in heterosexual marriages what they are, this belly-aching about gay marriage seems a little disingenuous to me.
As Christians, if we expect any worldly government to stick up for our traditions and beliefs, we are putting our hope in the absolute wrong place.