The Truth about Legal Marriage: None of Your Business

We simply must divorce marriage from religion, and religion from the law. Religion is private, the law is public.

You are free to worship as you choose, and practice whatever moral code you wish as long as you do not harm or deny property to someone else. Your sexuality is none of my business, and the sex lives of our fellow citizens are none of our business.

The law is a public commodity, available to all citizens and residents of this nation. If two people are allowed to join in a shared partnership with intentions of remaining so for the remainder of their lives, it makes no difference what gender either person is.

Religion is held by individuals, often in relationship to a religious order – a church, temple, parish, denomination, sect, ashram, faith, circle, whatever. If two people are to exchange vows in front of an assembly gathered in a church, learning of and agreeing to the covenant of marriage with the blessing of that community and their deity – that’s none of our business. It’s a private ceremony. The couple asks the congregation for their blessing and support, and that blessing and support may come with a mutually-held moral code.

The law does not make a marriage last, and neither does religious ceremony. The relationship between two individuals evolves. The community can influence the interactions and decisions the couple make about the relationship, but it does not keep them together nor tear them asunder. So family integrity may be supported by religious belief and fiscal consequence, but it is most certainly not assured.

Thus make no law you cannot enforce. Do not deny couples the right to be together when one is sick. Do not deny couples the right to make a long-term financial commitment, such as a mortgage, together. Do not discriminate against another solely because their morality and views do not agree with yours.

It’s a simple matter of respect. You would not tolerate a ban on heterosexual marriage no matter how many hearts have been broken, people swindled, children traumatized or infidelities committed in the name of marriage.

Now, let’s stop arguing about the stupid stuff and fix the nation.

Wages of Sin

The Catholic Church reaps what it hath sown. I will say this, and those who know the Book will cite my folly, but there is nothing in the teachings of Jesus as they have survived that suggests nor commands celibacy. What little I know of the Bible, I know it isn’t reliable except for two things: it can be used to justify all sorts of inhumanity, and the grace and redemption of Jesus teachings survive to justify all kinds of humanity we aspire to and some achieve.

However, celibacy is an abomination. We are created with a powerful id that far exceeds any necessary procreation. It drives us to great art and very embarrassing stupidity, but it is who we are. If certain persons choose to forego sex out of devotion, so be it, but build it into a global institution and enforce it for generations and I guarantee we are not the first to experience clerical perversion. The role of celibacy in the Church has been a corrupting influence throughout the ages, a patriarchy that enslaves women and damages faith we surely need.

Without true faith, we cannot imagine peace. Without spiritual awareness, we are damned to endless war, cruelty, slavery and crime. The grace of assembling to celebrate love and kindness, to share resources and concern for one another, to sing of our highest aspirations – this is a necessary magic that could bring heaven on earth. Such celebration of our virtues is our only hope and far too important to entrust to evil empires of religious administration.

I’m sorry, but institutionalized Christianity – particularly as expressed in the Holy Roman Church – has proven disastrous. Reform this time must be complete, must overwhelm entrenched wickedness, must resurrect the Goddess and it will take centuries. Pray that the species survives to see the day, celebrate our confidence to utter such a plea, and act accordingly.

Ebb & Kander: They had it comin’, they had it comin’ all along…