Same Sex marriage?

The Republican dominated legislature has finally managed to put a "same sex union ban" on the ballot as a constitutional amendment. What a shame. This will be a very divisive debate and at the end there will be very little gained by the results one way or the other. If the amendment passes we will be no further along than we are right now as marriage is already defined as between one man and one woman by law in N.C. and so marriage will not be enhanced. If it fails we will have a large number of people who will see our society sinking further into chaos.

As someone once remarked, "With more than half of the heterosexual marriages ending in divorce, with more and more elderly living in heterosexual relationships without marriage licenses, with so many unwed mothers in our society already, with domestic abuse all around us, just how in the world does same sex unions erode the respect for the institution of marriage?" In fact that same person wondered why homosexuals even wanted to get married with all the bad things associated with marriage. Allowing same sex unions will have no impact on the quality of heterosexual marriage.

A large number of people believe that they are defending the Biblical definition of marriage. There are two major places where the Bible speaks of "one man and one woman" There is a passage that says a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife. (Let it be noted that it does not say he can only cleave to one wife.) The thrust of the passage is that the man and woman create their own place and do not put the interest of their parents ahead of their own family. There is a passage of advice that leaders should be husbands of only one wife.

But when you read the whole Bible it does not seem to have a consistent definition of marriage or family. Abraham and the patriarchs had several wives and servant concubines. The Kings of Israel and Judah have listed harems and lots of wives. Saul, David, and Solomon had bunches of wives. Jesus himself is not reported to have had any wives, but he had lots of female friends. Paul, it has been argued by some scholars, had a wife but apparently was never home to care for her.

The desire to establish and impose the narrow definition of marriage from the Bible as one man one woman is an attempt to continue the imposition of the Christian world view on our rapidly emerging multicultural society. There are other cultures where more than one wife is expected. There are different ways to organize society. Certainly we can organize our society the way we think it is best but there ought to be great principles involved in what we do.

The principle of justice and human rights in its broadest understanding would not attempt to prevent same sex unions. Marriage is still one man and one woman, but there are people, human beings, who are homosexuals. How they got that way may be a long debate itself, but they exist. They have desires, feelings, and rights that all humans have in our society. They ought to be able to form unions, to share homes, to have children, to have the same benefits in health care, inheritance, and respect that other people have.

We did not need this amendment. We do not need this debate which is being forced upon us now. We do not need to pass this amendment, and if this amendment passes it will be a great step backwards for our "common good."