Will same-sex relationships save marriage? | Civil Commotion

When the Episcopal Church announced it had adopted a service to bless same-sex unions, I speculated that the non-procreative nature of such relationships might force the churches off their focus on reproduction and toward the essentials of marriage.

Though preachers frown to hear it put so baldly, Christianity teaches that marriage is cosmic permission for sex in order to procreate, and that?s all, and condemns the mutual loyalty and shared ambitions that make a relationship a marriage; those things are held to be a form of idolatry, and a sin. Jesus is to have all your loyalty, and He will tell you what are your ambitions, et cetera, et cetera. Think carefully, and you?ll realize you?ve heard that in the course of very nearly every church service you?ve ever sat through in your life.

Blessing same-sex relations as a lifelong covenant shifts attention toward real marriage, then, rather than service as brood mare and stud for some grow-your-own corporate growth strategy ? and ought to be applauded. Wouldn?t it be a sweet irony if it were same-sex blessings that finally, at too-long last, steered Christian teachings about marriage toward the essence of marriage?

It is no coincidence that evangelicals have the highest divorce rate in American life; they are taught from infancy that the things which make a relationship a marriage are sinful, and many of them are foolish enough to listen.

Well, what do you know? The philosopher Russell Blackford and Free Inquiry editor Tom Flynn are thinking along the same lines.

There?s something deeply wrong with the idea that free individuals should require the public sanction of the state?or even of their families and friends?to make their choice of a life-partner ?legitimate.? And we should be no less queasy with matrimony?s historic cargo. At its roots it?s a disturbing amalgam of state and religion, a separationist?s nightmare entangled in its pedigree as a sacrament of the church.

[ ... ]

This leads, of course, to the greatest irony of all. The LGBT movement was the only social reform movement powerful enough to have shattered matrimony?s monopoly, and it essentially co-opted itself. As a result, traditional marriage?hoary old church-entwined man-buys-woman institution that it is?ducked a bullet. Decades from now, cultural conservatives will still have matrimony around, and they?ll have the LGBT community to thank for it.

When such as Mohler et. al. shriek that same-sex marriage will destroy marriage, that?s true with respect to their particular concept of marriage ? a cosmically-sanctioned device for procreation as an engine of corporate growth.¹

The rest of us ought to be thrilled to see that idea fading.

- ? - ? -
¹ Abraham?s wife, Sarah, was supposed to be 90-years old when Isaac was born, so age is no obstacle.

Source: http://www.bobfelton.com/?p=18689

tony stewart kurt busch kurt busch nba dunk contest 2012 act of valor woody guthrie benson henderson