What's Going On: Why religion has nothing to do with gay marriage
Friday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling preventing states from banning gay marriage has reignited an all-too-familiar debate.
While some argue about the constitution, or state rights, or individual rights, most of the debate centers around religion. Marriage is a religious ceremony and many Christians believe it violates the word of God and as such, should not be sanctified by the church.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t matter.
Marriage isn’t about Christianity, God, or religion, at least not anymore. It probably was, hundreds of years ago, but the religious ceremony itself lost its “sanctity” long before any homosexual couple ever dreamed of being married.
I can’t tell you an exact date when the “sanctity” of marriage evaporated. Maybe it was when the first Elvis impersonator married a couple at a drive-through 24-hour wedding chapel on the Vegas strip. Maybe it was after Elizabeth Taylor’s fifth divorce.
Actually, marriage lost its religious sanctity the day the government first decided to offer benefits to married couples, whether in the form of tax breaks or social security benefits.
At that moment, marriage no longer remained a strictly religious ceremony; it became a government-sanctioned event creating a legally binding domestic partnership.
As a result, a preacher is no longer needed to marry a couple. Elvis can do it. Any judge can do it. Heck, thanks to an online form I filled out several years ago, I can do it in 14 states and the District of Columbia.
Technically speaking, if a judge conducts the ceremony, it’s actually called a civil union. But in the eyes of the government, it’s the same thing as a marriage. Whether it’s Elvis, the judge, or the preacher who marries you, it’s all the same in the eye of the government.
As such, marriage is no longer sacred, or even necessarily religious. However, most people who oppose gay marriage do so for religious reasons.
Religion has to be taken out of this debate, at least for now. Friday’s ruling has no impact on your church, unless your church wants it to.
If your church refuses to marry homosexuals due to religious doctrine, there won’t be any homosexuals married in it. If your church doesn’t believe that way and you do, find a new church or change the by-laws of the one you are currently a member of.
Some worry, and maybe justifiably so, that this court ruling will eventually lead to homosexual couples suing churches and preachers so they are forced to conduct the ceremony.
And while anyone can file a lawsuit for pretty much any reason, the chances of a court in this country ruling on a strictly religious doctrine seems about as likely as one forcing Americans to surrender their guns.
As I can not imagine an America where guns can’t be privately owned, I also can not imagine an America where courts mandate what ceremonies a church and its clergy conduct.
If that case does come though, then you have a strictly religious debate. As it stands now though, gay marriage isn’t about religion.
Its about homosexuals getting to stand in front of Elvis, or the judge, or yes, a liberal-minded preacher and being afforded the same opportunities as everyone else.
Gregory Orear is the General Manager/Editor of the Red Oak Express and Glenwood Opinion-Tribune. He can be contacted at publisher@redoakexpress.com.