desert spirit's fire!: marriage equality again: july synchroblog

Thursday, July 23, 2015

marriage equality again: july synchroblog

photograph with legal reuse rights from greekgod on rgb stock
This month I'm synchro-blogging again! The topic for July is Gay Marriage.

I posted the original version of this a month ago as (why not) marriage notes after the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of marriage equality on Friday, 26 June in Obergefell v Hodges. For this synchroblog post I've made a few changes and additions.

Synopsis: Please, no marriage anywhere for anyone any more.

News and social media outlets recently announced the United States Supreme Court's approval of same-sex marriage―marriage equality. You realize "same-sex" isn't necessarily GLBTQ marriage, just as opposite sex marriage isn't necessarily not-GLBTQ? Social media resounded with sights and sounds of celebration; not much jubilation from me, though. But why not?

The whole structure of marriage and legal commitment must change. After all, it's been evolving for millennia, anyway! It was so wonderful and freeing when a lot of people started committing to significant otherships rather than legal marriage! There needs to be some way of reliably indicating your desire for hospital visitation, etc. as well as protection for kids, but the legal (pertaining to, under the formal regulations of the states of the USA, the feds, or of other *legally* constituted governments) apparatus of marriage? I feel marriage is pretty much an anachronism, though as long as the legal institution exists and subsists, everyone who's not already legally married needs the right to get married. But then again, as long as govt involves itself (governments involve themselves) in this yoking up biz, why not guidelines and allowances for plural marriage? Why not? You know that's a form of biblical marriage!

Genesis 2:21-24 that some cite as proof God mandated and blesses a certain spousal configuration dates from the era of King Solomon's monarchy—only about 3,000 years ago! This text is from the Yahwist or "J" Pentateuch source; the Yahwist was King Solomon's theologian.

²¹So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. ²²And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. ²³Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken." ²⁴Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.

How many wives did Solomon own? According to some tallies, 700 wives and 300 concubines [1 Kings 11:03]. I know very little of its long and complex history, but maybe someone else can tell me, how long has this marriage notion been about love? Seems to me it mainly used to be about joining and uniting families, fortunes, dynasties, kingdom /queendoms and protecting land rights. You know that's still the case! And sometimes about diluting the too inbred gene pool of particular royal families.

Side note: How about ditching the antediluvian terms wife for female spouse, and husband for male spouse? Along with every living language, English retains fragments of many ancient words, but spouse, life partner, lifelong companion would be more up to date.

Besides finding some effective mode of protection for vulnerable children and others, I also want to be clear that I very very very much support publicly committing to (hopefully) a lifelong, (hopefully) an exclusive relationship with a significant other, but please do not involve or include legalities. If you're religious, how about during the Saturday or Sunday liturgy? If you're not religious or have other preferences, how about gathering at the beach, in the mountains, or in a lovely garden? During a chilly winter, someone's home that's large enough to hold your guests, or maybe a restaurant or other function room? You gotta have good eats, of course! I've provided bright contemporary cupcakes as a possibility for the sweets portion of the feast.

End notes: 1. BTW, this perspective has almost nothing to do with my libertarian spirit or my classical liberal heart.

2. It's a different topic for another day, but while we're referencing scripture and marriage, why make the church and other religious entities agents of the government?

3. Thursday, 30^th July: it simply amazes me that partly because I've posted on select pages and walls a couple dozen times, I've tweeted both no marriage posts at least two or three times each, and contrary to my typical single digits I've actually gotten a LOT of readers, the sole comment related to my observation about government and plural marriage. Am I on a different planet?

other July synchroblog participants: