Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests Gay marriages?

Originally posted by JaTo:

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The author is twisting word usage to the breaking point here and pulling one HELL of a bait and switch. I HAVE taken Anthropology courses back in college and studied the Greek and Roman empires quite a bit (the Roman empire well enough to have a department head check his notes on a particular topic during an argument).

There is NO common and widespread connection or evidence that exists that shows a long-standing social/religious ceremony that strictly bonds a same-sex couple together to the exclusion of all others.

True, the practice of homosexuality was widespread among Roman and Greek elites and there were certain rituals developed around the practice, though I've yet to see ANY documentation or research that points to a WIDESPREAD and COMMON ceremony that was both held sarcosanct by the MAJORITY of the religious and secular populations in any meaningfully developed civilization that has lived on this planet.

Key word being MAJORITY.

Grabbing a few examples out of the past doesn't change the common definition of marriage that has lasted and survived millenia of social and religious change throughout any number of civilizations. That is a cold, hard FACT. Pagan AND Christian values/norms as well as human nature itself has defined marriage throughout the ages. Also pointing to Roman emperors condoning the practice should IMMEDIATELY set alarm bells off, as some of the beliefs and practices of the emperors and thier decrees were often the polar opposite of commonly-held social and religious norms held at the time.

I'm smelling a large load of BS with that article.

Don't get me wrong; I have absolutely no issue with gays and wish that the US would come to grips with this and offer civil unions as the solution. Marriage throughout all common religions of today (pick your poison: Christianity, Islam, Shintoism, Bhuddism, etc., etc.) and most societies involve (1) man and (1) woman, though.

I think civil unions should have an elevated status that equates marriage and all of the benefits thereof, reflecting a joining of same-sex couples; marriage should reflect man and wife, as it has done throughout the ages in 99.999% of the time.

It is splitting hairs to an extent (as a concept and defition of that concept is being argued here), but for the same reason most societies split hairs over other long-held religious and social practices.

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