Marriage ring by Jo Christian Oterhals
The
current Supreme Court cases regarding gay marriage have the
potential, over time, to transform the concept of marriage in this
country.
Arguments regarding Proposition 8 and DOMA had
people asking many questions, but one was simple:
Can our
society live up to the promise of equality, and the fundamental
rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness if we continue
to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation?
Perhaps
it's time to ask whether we're on a slippery slope, or on a stairway
up, where each step is a deliberately chosen advance toward a more
just society.
Let's be willing to ask what purpose "marriage"
serves today, and even if there's a legitimate role for the State to
play.
The recent debate only obliquely focused on Church vs.
State prerogatives regarding "marriage", but this
consideration is actually at the core of the issue.
To
understand where we are, it helps to know where we've been.
A
glance back finds that originally, marriage was an economic and
political arrangement with wives having fewer rights than the
husband.
From the fall of the Roman Empire until the 16th
century, the Church controlled the institution of marriage.
They decided whether you would be allowed to marry.
The
Protestant Reformation of the 16th century rejected the prevailing
concept of marriage, when Martin Luther declared marriage to be "a
worldly thing . . . that belongs to the realm of government".
The
English Puritans in the 17th century passed an Act of Parliament
asserting "marriage to be no sacrament" and soon thereafter
made marriage purely secular. It was no longer to be performed
by a minister, but by a justice of the peace.
In the 17th and
18th centuries, Enlightenment thinkers advocated marrying for love
rather than wealth or status.
In the late 19th and 20th
centuries, wives began to insist on being regarded as their husbands'
equals, rather than their property.
By 1970, widespread use
of contraception transformed marriage: Couples could choose how many
children to have, and even to have no children at all. Marriage
gradually become viewed as a personal contract between two equals
seeking love, stability, and happiness.
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