Why? Well, partly because I don't want to abandon the blog altogether and partly because I am tired. Yes, TIRED. On June 26, 2015 the Supreme Court of the USA ruled on a landmark civil rights case that greatly affects a lot of my friends and some family. I was giddy with excitement all weekend and well into the following week. I reveled in my skittles colored facebook feed and the influx of wedding and engagement announcements. I was proud of my country for no longer lagging behind in the issue of civil rights for same sex couples.
Along with all that happiness and pride and, quite honestly, simple RELIEF that there is one less obstacle out there in the world for my child and for so many others, was that tinge of sadness and HURT from some of the posts that people I cared about, who disagree with this ruling, were making, and continue to make now, nearly three weeks later. This meme, or one of basically the same message, or words to this effect is one I am particularly tired of seeing:
There are so many things wrong with this, that I am just tired of seeing it as an excuse to disagree with the Supreme Court ruling at all--so I am going to just refute it right here, right now, and maybe I'll just post a link to this blog post every time I see this message from now on (OK; I probably won't, but at least I will feel better having put my refute out there somewhere).
First and foremost: The Supreme Court did NOT "redefine" marriage. Marriage today is, to quote the Talking Heads "same as it ever was" OK, OK, not really. Women long ago ceased becoming essentially the property of their husbands in our country, thankfully. It is, however, the same today in the USA as it was on June 25, 2015. The Supreme Court ruling did not suddenly confer additional tax benefits or strip away inheritance benefits, etc. NOTHING about marriage itself (in the legal sense) changed with the ruling. Not one thing. All that happened was that the Supreme Court said that legal marriage within the USA cannot be denied to a couple based on their sex. That's it.
Saying that the Supreme Court redefined marriage on June 26, 2015 is like saying it redefined "voting" on February 27, 1922 when it ruled that states could not deny women the right to vote, or saying that the Supreme Court redefined "education" when it ruled that black students could not be denied being taught in the same schools, by the same teachers as their white counterparts (a ruling which took far too long to implement across the board). I have yet to see anyone point out any way in which the legal status of "married" has changed for any married couple since the ruling came out--which is probably because it has not changed. The only thing even close to this is now couples married in states which had already realized denying marriage to same sex couples was not right, can move to other states and their marriages will be recognized there--just like every straight married couple has been able to do pretty much forever. That is not a change to marriage itself--moving across state lines and still being recognized is one of those legals things already in place which is simply no longer being unfairly denied to one small group of citizens.
OK, so now that it is clear that marriage has NOT be "redefined"--let's look at the rest of that meme, shall we? You support the "Christian definition of marriage," which we can infer means "one man and one woman" or "straight" based on the tone of the meme and the recent supreme court decision that is apparently being referred to.
The first problem with this is that marriage, in the legal sense (which is all this ruling is about) is not about Christianity in the US at all (and it should not be, remember that pesky little thing called separation of church and state?). Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Atheists, Agnostics, etc have all been getting legally married (yes, by that name, no civil union mumbo jumbo) in the US for well over a century. It is positively silly to insist that the legally joining together of two spouses has been reserved for only one faith in our country up to now or should suddenly become so. Beyond the USA and our specific laws, some people seem to have the misguided belief that marriage is a Christian invention; simply not true. Legal marriage, in some form, has existed at least since Hammurabi's Code--long before the time of Christ.
Then there is that little issue in which not all Christian churches agree on how "holy matrimony" or religious marriage should be defined anyway. It would seem that the meme makers and meme posters have decided that, among others, the Presbyterians, Evangelical Lutherans, Episcopalians and members of the United Church of Christ and are not actually Christians after all. Hmmmm. Hardly seems right, does it?
So, basically, if you believe that your church should not perform same sex weddings or should preach that homosexuality is a sin, while I do not agree with you, and depending on how you handle that belief I may or may not respect it (more on that later), I do support your right to hold such a belief and will fight for you to always have that right.
However, I have absolutely no tolerance left for the spreading of lies and myths about definitions somehow being changed, or continuing any sort of fantasy that there is only ONE Christian view on same sex marriage or that ANY religious view on the topic is, has been in semi recent history or should be part of, the legally binding law of the land in our free country.
--Hadley
No comments:
Post a Comment