Marriage has been defined for decades, and still is, by the Merriam Webster Dictionary thus:
the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law (emphasis added)
Marriage is a religious institution, that, by definition, is governed by religious laws. Distinct from civil marriage that is performed by a magistrate without any explicit religious sanction, “marriage” is performed in accordance with specifically defined religious traditions and laws. Marriage is defined by every religion as a union between a man and a woman, not man and man or woman and woman or any such other perverse combination.
In the Torah and the Old Testament of the Bible, Gen. 2:18, 21-24:
The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him’…and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh.
Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.’
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
In the Bible, Ephesians 5:22-27
Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
While not entirely self-explanatory, “him” refers to the husband and “her” refers to the wife.
In the Qur’an, 4:3 and 4:25:
[men,] marry such women as seem good to you …
[men should] marry free believing women…
In Hinduism, the Vedas don’t even contemplate such perverse actions, by simply referring to man and wife. In the Vedic Basis for Hindu Weddings, Srinivasan writes:
If there is one prevailing wish that husbands and wives have for their marriage, it is to be close companions for life. While many men and women know that love is essential for such a lifelong bond, they often don’t realize that love without close friendship is only a hormonal illusion.
As for opposing same sex marriage and even homosexuality, a simple Google search yields sufficient number results describing each religion’s explicit prohibition against such activities.
I am not against civil unions or domestic partnerships laws that provide equal rights and benefits to all couples, whether gay, straight, married, not married, in a relationship, or in any combination. It is a matter of basic rights and I don’t think it is at all fair to deny any body any rights based on their sexual orientation. Gays should have the same rights as straight people to share their love with their loved ones, by providing them with rights and benefits befitting a relationship between two consenting adults.
At the same time, however, marriage is a religious institution that cannot be re-defined according to the whims of any lobby or interest group. Marriage is a holy union of a man and a woman, period. As Arnold once said:
I think that gay marriage should be between a man and a woman
I take gay in this line to be in its original meaning of (whether the Governator meant it this way or not is entirely a different matter):
“happy, merry, excited”
Now, in the great state of NH, people are not entirely convinced by the arguments of the gay marriage lobby that marriage needs to be re-defined by a legislature or a court. According to the State of the State poll conducted by the Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth College, my alma mater, the good folks of NH are divided on this issue:
On the issue of same-sex marriage in the state, respondents’ opinions were closely divided, and within the margin of error, with 44.8 percent opposing same-sex marriage and 40.8 percent supporting same-sex marriage.
According to the Manchester Examiner, a poll conducted by the UNH Survey Center finds the following:
A recent Survey Center poll from UNH, meanwhile, shows a 55 percent margin favoring gay marriage and 35 percent opposing it.
The website of the UNH center, however, shows no such poll or press release, especially given such strong support for such a divisive issue.
The Dartmouth poll is within the margin of error. The good people of NH are not sure whether they like the idea of same sex marriage or not. The polls don’t conclude anything. But the Donkeys in power in Concord feel that they can change public opinion by shoving an un-Godly law down our throats.
Conservative activists are already gearing up for a fight in 2010. Townhall reports that Republicans and conservatives are going to use this issue to try and pick up more seats in the house and senate next year, and possibly even unseat Lynch. Note too that this article doesn’t mention the UNH poll either.
Lynch will probably get re-elected given his sky high approval ratings, but the senate and/or the house might flip. The GOP picked up 15 house seats in 2008, a bad year for the GOP nationwide. NH still remains the “live free or die” state, which is, at the end of the day, more of a Republican motto than a Democratic one.
