I'm so sick of hearing about "gay marriage."
Traditional marriage is a man agreeing with another man that their families are of similar social standing and could benefit from combining their land and wealth. These two men would then arrange for a marriage between their very young children who may have never even met. They draw up a contract, and essentially "sell" their children to each other. The people - whether they ever love each other or not - are then married. Tada. The families go on, the wealth grows. The end.
This romantic idea that marriage is all about "love" is adorable, and shows how awesome our culture has become as far as honoring individual wishes. It's still a civil, legal arrangement though, which makes it a government matter, not a church matter.
I challenge every person who believes that marriage is a religious and Godly matter to get married in their churches, but never make it legal. I challenge them to give up every legal benefit they receive from the government and live their own lives according to their religious traditions, to give up all the benefits they wish to deny to others, all the benefits that have nothing to do with whether or not the church was involved in their wedding.
Until people are willing to do that, we have to admit that marriage is more than just a solemn religious ceremony. It is a social construct supported by the government that cannot be limited to any one religious interpretation because that's grossly unconstitutional.
Whether or not gay people gross you out, whether you think it's wrong, whether you're suppressing others because you're trying to suppress these urges in yourself that you despise, none of that matters. What matters is how we treat people, how we treat the people we disagree with especially, and to what lengths we go to support each other so that we're all standing on two feet on equal ground.
If you don't think that two men can get married according to your tradition, keep your mouth shut. You aren't even married according to just your tradition the second you let the government step in and give you benefits. Time to move on to bigger battles, people, and stop finding fancy ways to say, "Neighbor, I hate you."
