Monday, May 14, 2012

Marriage Equality




In the past sixty years I have witnessed many changes in our society that would have startled my parents. The baby boomers have grown up looking at life from a very different perspective and their children have gone far beyond them.

When I was a boy it was unheard of for blacks and whites to be married and yet today almost ten percent of weddings are mixed race of many varieties.  Indeed some of the brides and grooms are children of mixed race marriages. There were some states that outlawed such weddings. There were many arguments that it would ruin the sanctity of marriage to allow it. Now no state has such restrictions. In my church there are mixed race couples with beautiful children and no one thinks anything about it. We have a new normal for our society.

Today the argument is about same sex marriages and there are already a lot of them as one state after another have made it legal. The older generation rails against it but the under 40 group thinks it is the most natural thing. That group is not far from taking over the political arena. Our culture is evolving to a more open and more loving accepting society.

Some of us older generations are having a difficult time adjusting to this sweeping change. As with the mixed race time people are calling for laws for marriage to be only for one man and one woman. It calls into question the purpose of marriage. Marriages in the past were often arranged by the fathers and were for providing legal heirs. In the early days of America some states required that a man own property before he could take a wife.

If marriage is only to provide for the next generation what does that say for couples who do not wish to have children or can not have children? If marriage is to provide for stable family units would that not include same gender couples?  The debate is on but the direction of change in society has already been set and like it or not there is no turning it back.

I ponder the question that if the marriage of a black woman and a white man does not affect my marriage, will marriage between two women affects it?

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