by Aaron Silver

Created on: January 03, 2007   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

Writ Marriage, a religious institution?

I have difficulty trying to understand why allowing gays to use the term "marriage" rather than "unions" to be such a sticking point. I have heard it often said by people that are opposed to gay marriage; say that marriage is a religious institution. Or using the term marriage will somehow make a mockery of traditional marriages. If marriage were indeed a religious institution, why then are heterosexual couples afforded such a wide variety of ways of getting married that have no religious affiliation whatsoever? Heterosexual atheists are allowed to marry and they certainly don't want any religious overtones to their marriages. Straight couples can get married by the justice of the piece; they can get married by a ship captain on a cruise ship. They can be married underwater or on a mountaintop. They can even get married in Las Vegas at a drive-in window as if ordering a happy meal. Don't get me wrong, I love happy meals, however it doesn't seem like a very sacred or religiously affiliated circumstance to me. As the list goes on and on how straight couples are able to be married it does seem to make the argument of about marriage being a religious institution absurd.

I have also heard many opponents of gay marriage say that same sex marriage will make a mockery and destroy the sanctity of traditional marriages. I think that looking closely at all of the statistics about the success of traditional marriages, they seem to be doing pretty damn good job of their own in that regard without any help from gays. Then when one looks at the statistics of how many straight lay men and woman who have extramarital affairs doesn't look so good either not to mention many couples of the clergy who seem also not to have the greatest track record. So then, what do the opponents of gay marriage really mean by saying that same sex marriage would make a mockery of traditional marriage? One doesn't have to be a sociologist or have a degree in statistics to understand that allowing gay marriages to exist would hurt no one. In fact gay marriage would likely cause gays to have longer lasting relationships. There has been a common complaint generally spouted out by the straight population, that gay relationships don't seem very long lasting. Statistics do however bear out one thing in regards to marriage verses just living together as a couple. Couples that are married verses couples just living together, do last longer if they are married. Perhaps this could be the answer then in regards to motivating gay couples to work harder at their relationships rather than being able to just walk away when there are rough waters.

Learn more about this author, Aaron Silver.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.