Polgamy

[Trauma-san]

^ I was speaking on a a philosophical level.  Lemme explain better...


If a man and woman walk up to you and introduce themselves as man and wife, you accept it at face value and may even have a little bit of respect for their committment to each other.  I do.  When a guy introduces his wife, I think "damn, something solid!" because it's great to see people commit to each other (at least to me).

However; what if they're both athiests?  Or if you're Christian, what if they're both Hindu's?  Do you feel any less respect for them? I personally don't.... I've already made the decision (I think most people have, too) that marriage is more of a personal commitment than it is a religious commandment. 

So if we'll freely allow people of other religions and non-religious people to get married and feel no ill-will towards them, there must not be much a precedent that it's a religious decision to get married.

I almost think of it (in my mind) like a religious marriage is just a ceremony that means something personal to the couple.  I honestly see no difference in two athiests getting married and two christians geting married, and I'm a christian.  So in my mind, I can't see how I can without being a hypocrite condemn two faggots for getting married... because I'll readily accept non-religious people getting married. 

When it comes down to it, though, I would think that God probably would prefer everyone be a Christian and marry women and men, lol. 

My whole belief of damnation has been destroyed way back when I was a child.  I just don't believe God really gets that involved with things like we're talking about, I think he's much more interested in someone's intent and heart.  That may just be me copping out... but I know when I meet someone, their heart and character is more important to me than what they look like or choose to live their life by. If my puny mind can understand that, I can't even comprehend how loving and fair and forgiving and generous God must be. 

[Shallow]

If I was running the country here's how I'd do it; any two people would be able to get a civil union so that they could depend on each other, enjoy tax benefits, be able to see one another in emegency rooms, automatically leave all their belongings to their legal partner etc. Whether this is a union out of love or strictly business like two straight single guys wanting to save some cash is irrelevant to me. And marriage would be completely religious and have no bearing on the legal side what so ever. It would strictly be left to the churches, mosque, temples etc. If you wanted to get a legal union afterwards that's fine, if not that's fine too. I'd create new terms for each member of the legal union to avoid confusion with a husband and wife scenario. If two gay men want a legal union to profess their commitment to eachother then the government would have to grant them one. If a father and daughter want a legal union because the father wants all his possessions to go to his daughter in case of an accident and doesn't want to make up a will or wants a stronger or another legal bond to avoid confusion in the courts then the government would have to grant them one. Now if either the two gay men or the father and daughter want to to get "married" they would have to find a religious institute that would grant them one and have the right to refuse marrying anyone that institute wishes to refuse.