SAFE NATURAL CURES & LIVING

When did marriage become a government issue? Marriage has been around since the beginning. When God created Adam and Eve, they “knew” each other, meaning that they had sex. That was it; they were married. As soon as their son was old enough, he, too, took a wife. And so on.

Marriage began as a way to have companionship and protection, and of helping each other, and it resulted in procreation. Some marry for love, some for convenience, and some solely for procreation. Government may have gotten involved as a way of preventing and settling disputes over property and inheritances. It is said that priests once had families just like everyone else but that the Catholic Church did not like losing the accrued property to children when their priests died. Banning priests from being married kept the property in the hands of the Church.

Government involvement is still not necessary for marriage. Marriage began as a verbal commitment and remains so in many countries. We’ve all heard of people being “married in the eyes of God.” This is still the only real requirement, and anyone (homo- or hetero- sexual) has the right to refer to their partner as their husband or wife.

The real issue of same-sex marriage is that of legal benefits. These would include inheritance, being next of kin, preventing forced court testimony, and discounts with family memberships, just to name a few. Marriage is already a legal right offered to everyone; everyone has the legal right to marry someone of the opposite sex, but some people do not accept that choice.

The solution would seem to be to simply change the terminology. Since “marriage” is the word that brings out anger and hostility, and has become a stumbling block, the answer would be to pick a different term. A “union” (pick a term) could be written into law to have every legal benefit as a marriage. There are enough churches around who would even offer marriage ceremonies for those who want their union to have a religious component.

Some would say that gays not only have equal rights already but even more rights than most. Maybe asking for equal benefits instead would change the entire tone of the issue because it would allow the other side to stop feeling that anything given would result in the loss of any of their own rights.