The Union Forever!

Okay Maine you surprised me. You went to the polls and overrode your own legislature to take the right of marriage away from same sex couples. I thought you were so much more sensible than that. I thought you would see things the way I do; if you’re opposed to same sex marriage, don’t marry a person of the same sex. That’s simple. It’s easy to remember. You may not have entirely made up your mind about what you hope for in a spouse but you rule out anyone who has certain body parts that look pretty much like yours.

I get that there are a lot of people who feel threatened by gay marriage, but I’ve never figured out why. And I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything resembling a logical explanation either. There are those who point to the bible and say it’s prohibited there but the bible also tells us to lay off the pork chops and I don’t see any of these people trying to fire the minister who allowed the ham and bean supper in the church hall.

There are people who take the old “we’ve never done it that way here before” approach. That’s a great piece of logic that would still have us riding horses to work. You know when automobiles came along they were seen, in part, as a solution to the pollution caused by horses. Imagine the Maine Turnpike public works crews spending the whole day cleaning up road apples.

There are a lot of negative consequences from the proliferation automobiles - remember nothing causes problems like solutions. But about the only downside that I can think of as a result of the change away from the horse is we put the guys who made boot scrapers out of business.

Since my spouse is of the opposite sex and I don’t live in Maine it probably shouldn’t bother me at all but for some reason it does. So at the risk of sounding like one of those dogmatic atheists who is so strenuous in their insistence that there is no God that it becomes pretty obvious that non-belief is their religion, I’m going to make a suggestion to get all 50 states on the same page and let us worry about other things. You know, little things like two wars, a tanked economy and a health care system that isn’t a system and only works for those who are healthy.

It is time for the states, all 50 of them, to get out of the marriage business entirely.

All 50 of the 50 states are civil institutions and should recognize civil unions. Let the state of Holy Matrimony be, as it should be, the domain of religious institutions. You cover the law with a civil union you go to a religious institution to get things straightened out with the Deity. It’s a “render unto Caesar” approach that makes perfect sense to me.

This would not invalidate any existing marriage, all would automatically be recognized as Civil Unions by the states that make a distinction between Civil Union and Marriage. Whether your religious institution would recognize it is your problem, not mine. If you were married in a church I would assume you’re already covered. If not, and you wanted the sanction of religion for your union, that’s entirely between you and your clergy in the faith of your choice.

Is this idea reasonable? Definitely. Plausible? Entirely. Original? Well I can’t claim to be the only person or the first person to think of it I’m sure but it makes sense doesn’t it? Which is why I’m sure it has practically no chance. I’m sure the people who overrode the legislature would think this was somehow cheapening their marriage. And of course legislators with sense enough to do the right thing more than occasionally are in extremely short supply. But I offer it in the marketplace of ideas and you can either buy it or keep walking.