Editor Annapolis Patch Staff firstname.lastname@example.org
12:23 am on Monday, February 27, 2012
Jennell is correct in her understanding of my comments.
Liz - civil unions just don't give the same rights - examples - IRS laws, and if your partner is injured and hospitalized in a state that doesn't recognize civil unions then you have no rights to visitation or decision making. The list is literally over 1000 items long.
9:51 am on Sunday, February 26, 2012
As a minister who performs marriages and same sex unions what I am doing with these couples is spiritual. They are making a soul level commitment and in the process, creating a new community – a new family – blending both family members of birth and choice. Together the two individuals become more, stronger, with better lives than they have without joining in this way. I have found that there have been marriages and unions which I did not want to perform, and I have in fact refused to perform some - love, integrity, God - just not there. There have been many couples straight and gay for whom I was honored to be part of their process. This is a really complex issue and yet a simple one.
I support the move for gay marriage but I think the better solution would be - If you want tax breaks and medical decision making rights and the over a thousand other rights defined by law - let everyone have civil unions and then let the churches exercise their right of sanctioning only those they choose to – those for whom this is a spiritual choice. Church doesn’t need to be conferring tax or other legal rights. This is consistent with history and makes sense - so it is unlikely to happen!! :)
9:46 am on Sunday, February 26, 2012
This argument is made more difficult because people are not looking at the same knowledge of the history of marriage and often have no idea of the legal complexities involved.
First, marriage was not a religious institutions until relatively late in history (last 200 years or so). Even in the Christian gospels it is clear at Cana that this was no religious ceremony. Jesus wasn't asked to bless the couple - he was asked to make more wine. Also - in that time, Levirate marriage was the also the custom, in which, when a man died one of his brothers was required to take the wife of the dead man as a second or third, or...wife. So - if you want a basis for polygamy - here it is – but it is about being responsible for someone’s care.
The only marriages that invoked religion were "royal" marriages, to secure the divine rights of the monarch - such as succession, and the seizure of lands. Common folk held weddings, transferring the woman publicly from the father to the husband as property, in the largest gathering place - often the church, but it was not a religious action. Just as an aside - anyone care that the Catholic Popes often blessed same sex couples in the Middle Ages? ( part 2 coming-space limit)
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