Harmless

Gay Marriage: For better or for worse?

I've been hearing and reading a lot just lately, on the internet and in real life, about gay marriage and whether or not it's evil. And that sort of follows nicely from my rant the other week about intolerance.

So I figured it would be timely to set out my stand on such matters, and my stand is this:
I don't care. I don't give a dingo's kidney who is sleeping with who and in what position. It's none of my business, and I'd like to keep it that way, and I'm sure most of my friends would be fairly happy with me keeping my nose out of their bedrooms.

That said, I do know some people who identify as gay or bisexual (we don't have many in these rural parts, but I know them both) and they're perfectly nice people. They don't 'identify' by wearing rainbows or gay pride t-shirts; they don't force their sexuality on innocent bystanders, they are merely true to themselves. I don't think they would want to be primarily identified for who they have sex with anyway, they would rather be identified as funny or kind or good at her job or whatever else it might be. Except by virtue of being married, I don't identify myself as 'straight', and to me making a point of the fact that you're not 'straight' is to highlight the difference and scupper the equality you probably claim to want. Just shut up about which gender you find attractive and get back to the business of being a well-rounded human being, then maybe you'll be treated the way you would like.

Which brings me back to the start, and gay marriage. Now, I can see the argument that whether or not same-sex marriage is allowed doesn't affect my marriage, but I have to admit that I'm coming round to the view that actually, it kinda does.

That's not because I'm anti-gay; far from it. You want to be gay, knock yourself out. I do believe that homosexual sex is biblically wrong, but if you don't subscribe to my religious values, it would be unfair of me to judge you by them. If you are claiming to be a gay Christian, then maybe that's a different matter, but I'll leave that between you and God unless you ask my opinion.

No, I'm not anti-gay, but I am pro-marriage. Gay couples can already get the bit of paper; they can enter a civil partnership which gives at least some of the legal benefits of marriage. Why do you need more? I needed more because I wanted my union with Animal to be blessed by God; for me, the bit of paper, the legal stuff, wasn't as important as the Christian ceremony. Similarly I know straight, non-religious couples who would be just as happy with a civil partnership as with a marriage.

Anyway, I came across this blog post recently which sums up the way I am thinking much more eloquently than I ever could. Here are the highlights, as far as my view on gay marriage is concerned:

The fact that we need the qualifer, “same-sex,” shows that in the minds of those discussing marriage, there’s a distinction between marriage and same-sex marriage.

If a societal institution like marriage can be redefined once, why not twice, three times, or as many times as we want? So in five years (or sooner), someone will want marriage to include a man and multiple wives or a woman and multiple husbands. Why not a man and his dog? Or how about a man or woman and a consenting child? Who is to say that these can’t also be considered marriage if marriage becomes a fluid term?

I hadn't actually thought of that argument, but it's an interesting point! Looked at that way, same-sex marriage, polygamous marriage, or any other variation of marriage, devalues the model that God intended for us, of one man and one woman.

If I've offended or angered anyone in the process of writing this, go ahead and tell me why, that's what the comments are for. There's much more I could say to defend my point of view, but I'm sure I've said enough by now!

That's My King

It's Musical Monday, dummy

You know that moment when you hear a song that you've been aware of for ages but it suddenly starts to mean something? Well I heard this one on tv a while back, when I hunted it down, I was pretty blown away by the lyrics....

All that stuff about being tired of playing, of being a 'tempteress', and leaving the other girls to play? That was me a couple of years ago. Then Someone gave me a reason to love Him, and I was unchained, I got a new frame of mind... and a real man, who isn't afraid to cry sometimes.

For that was the beginning of forever, and ever...

May the 4th Be With You

What started out as a little geeky in-joke has, it seems, become something of an internet craze, with people who don't even like Star Wars posting 'Happy Star Wars Day' comments and pictures on facebook and the like (apparently; I have so far resisted the lure of the big f, and intend to keep it that way so that when facebook eventually implodes I can sit back and go 'ner-ner' to the rest of the world).

So much so that one of my colleagues has suggested there will be a backlash before too many more Mays have passed, on the basis that Star Wars Day serves no useful purpose beyond glorifying a film trilogy whose creator has gone on making money by giving us increasingly bastardised versions of what was already a cinematic classic.

</rant mode>

And he has a point. By mentioning Star Wars I'm pointing people towards a fictional mythic spirituality rather than towards Christ. Star Wars Day will not cure cancer, or bring down the porn industry, or do any number of good and 'worthy' things that I care about. In the US it's National Mental Health Month; Star Wars Day could be seen as taking attention away from something that tries to raise awareness for good reason.

Whose side am I on? you may be wondering. Well, any minute now, I'm going to sit down with Animal and some of our friends, and enjoy some beer, some takeout, and a Star Wars DVD marathon; you work it out.

I have nothing against raising awareness of cancer, porn, depression or any number of other things, and maybe days for those have a place on the social networks of the intertubes. But Star Wars Day is just a bit of harmless (if geeky) fun, and sometimes a little bit of fun can be just what's needed.

Happy Star Wars Day everybody, May the 4th be with you.

Twenty-six

And I was so nearly born on Star Wars Day! Stupid non-geeky parents... I'll try harder when me and Animal decide to have kids.