"The word of the Lord came to me: 'Son of man, speak to your people and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head. Since they heard the sound of the trumpet but did not heed the warning, their blood will be on their own head. If they had heeded the warning, they would have saved themselves. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes someone’s life, that person’s life will be taken because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood.'"
-Ezekiel 33:1-6
Given the recent public light that has been shed on same-sex marriage, I have decided to tackle the issue for own writing pleasure. I would like to set forth as a disclaimer now that I do not mean to offend anyone with anything that I say on either side of this issue, but in a similar vein I will not apologize for offending anyone. I intend no harm, and I assure all of you that I will avoid being disrespectful, but I cannot predict the myriad of ways that anyone may be offended by what I say and I do not intend to compromise any of my positions in the slightest.
Now that that's over with,
The central question here, as I understand it, is whether or not same-sex marriage should be legal in the United States of America. I do not know the legal systems of any other locales well enough to judge them, but I will do my best to base my arguments on generalized systems of morality and legality.
Speaking of which,
Most people, especially Christians, have an annoying habit of separating morality and legality on tough issues like Same-Sex Marriage, Marijuana, Abortion, Torture, and Underwater Basket-Weaving. Somewhat obviously, I oppose the separation.
There are those who say, "You can't legislate morality."
Those people are wrong.
You can't legislate people into a corner where they have to behave morally (I mean, you can, but it doesn't work out and it usually violates civil liberties), but legislation is nothing more than general morality applied to specific situations with punishments attached to infractions.
Example:
1) It's wrong to kill people
2) Sometimes, people kill other people (often with guns)
3) If you kill someone, you will face legal recourse.
Bam. You just legislated morality.
This being the case, the most useful place to start in asking the question, "Should guys be allowed to marry guys and girls be allowed to marry girls?" is in morality.
As a firm Utilitarian, I am compelled to start with Utilitarian morals. Does preventing Same-Sex Marriage cause any suffering? Yes, it clearly does. Clearly, people who are homosexual and want to marry experience some level of suffering at not being allowed to legally marry, otherwise they wouldn't seek the right to marry.
More importantly, does allowing Same-Sex Marriage cause any suffering, or at least are there any obviously predictable negative effects? Well, gay couples as parents are statistically no better or worse than straight parents at raising their children, according to most normative standards of child-rearing, so there's no obvious detriment to the children.
As far as others are concerned, certainly there will be a number of people made very upset by the marriage of dudes to other dudes and girls to other girls, but I frankly have to say that the pleasure gained by people allowed to freely marry one another is probably amazingly greater than the frustration and suffering of those who don't want people of the same sex to marry one another.
I can't think of any obvious societal cost to allowing people of the same sex to marry one another.
Some say that it will degrade marriage as an institution, but I, for one, think that's a bit of a moot point in a society with divorce rates somewhere around 50%.
Some say that the infertility present in same sex couples sours marriage by making it primarily the concern of two adults, not the concern of a family unit. Again though, I think a 50% divorce rate is solid evidence that we as a society have abandoned the concept of marriage as concerning a family unit, so while the point is true, it is not obvious that same-sex couples would in any way worsen a trend that already exists. Furthermore, many same-sex couples adopt, which further weakens this point.
So why not? Why not have the Pope perform a ceremony between Adam and Steve, and for the hell of it have him do the ceremony live on Ellen?
We'll let that one stand until the next post. Until then though, it's been wonderful.
-J.R.M.C.
-Ezekiel 33:1-6
Given the recent public light that has been shed on same-sex marriage, I have decided to tackle the issue for own writing pleasure. I would like to set forth as a disclaimer now that I do not mean to offend anyone with anything that I say on either side of this issue, but in a similar vein I will not apologize for offending anyone. I intend no harm, and I assure all of you that I will avoid being disrespectful, but I cannot predict the myriad of ways that anyone may be offended by what I say and I do not intend to compromise any of my positions in the slightest.
Now that that's over with,
The central question here, as I understand it, is whether or not same-sex marriage should be legal in the United States of America. I do not know the legal systems of any other locales well enough to judge them, but I will do my best to base my arguments on generalized systems of morality and legality.
Speaking of which,
Most people, especially Christians, have an annoying habit of separating morality and legality on tough issues like Same-Sex Marriage, Marijuana, Abortion, Torture, and Underwater Basket-Weaving. Somewhat obviously, I oppose the separation.
There are those who say, "You can't legislate morality."
Those people are wrong.
You can't legislate people into a corner where they have to behave morally (I mean, you can, but it doesn't work out and it usually violates civil liberties), but legislation is nothing more than general morality applied to specific situations with punishments attached to infractions.
Example:
1) It's wrong to kill people
2) Sometimes, people kill other people (often with guns)
3) If you kill someone, you will face legal recourse.
Bam. You just legislated morality.
This being the case, the most useful place to start in asking the question, "Should guys be allowed to marry guys and girls be allowed to marry girls?" is in morality.
As a firm Utilitarian, I am compelled to start with Utilitarian morals. Does preventing Same-Sex Marriage cause any suffering? Yes, it clearly does. Clearly, people who are homosexual and want to marry experience some level of suffering at not being allowed to legally marry, otherwise they wouldn't seek the right to marry.
More importantly, does allowing Same-Sex Marriage cause any suffering, or at least are there any obviously predictable negative effects? Well, gay couples as parents are statistically no better or worse than straight parents at raising their children, according to most normative standards of child-rearing, so there's no obvious detriment to the children.
As far as others are concerned, certainly there will be a number of people made very upset by the marriage of dudes to other dudes and girls to other girls, but I frankly have to say that the pleasure gained by people allowed to freely marry one another is probably amazingly greater than the frustration and suffering of those who don't want people of the same sex to marry one another.
I can't think of any obvious societal cost to allowing people of the same sex to marry one another.
Some say that it will degrade marriage as an institution, but I, for one, think that's a bit of a moot point in a society with divorce rates somewhere around 50%.
Some say that the infertility present in same sex couples sours marriage by making it primarily the concern of two adults, not the concern of a family unit. Again though, I think a 50% divorce rate is solid evidence that we as a society have abandoned the concept of marriage as concerning a family unit, so while the point is true, it is not obvious that same-sex couples would in any way worsen a trend that already exists. Furthermore, many same-sex couples adopt, which further weakens this point.
So why not? Why not have the Pope perform a ceremony between Adam and Steve, and for the hell of it have him do the ceremony live on Ellen?
We'll let that one stand until the next post. Until then though, it's been wonderful.
-J.R.M.C.
Interesting thoughts. I am looking forward to seeing where you go with this
ReplyDelete