I feel that most people would consider marriage more than just a metaphor. Whether viewed in a religious, legal, or romantic light, I think that marriage for most people represents a covenant that people come to rely on, and can become the underpinning of their lives and sense of identity.
a covenant is just a fanciful word for contract–one in which almost any two people could go out monday morning and have a marriage license in a matter of hours.
as current american heterosexual marriages only work out 51% of the time, i’d say that’s a damn shabby covenant. it seems that marriage is a dying standard, and knee-jerk heterosexuals want to make it even more exclusive and restrictive.
i can tell you what effect that has on me. i’d sooner do anything else than get married and be associated with a covenant of discrimination. throwing out the baby with the bathwater…? what baby?
and that’s what’s probably going to happen. marriage will either be ****** to expand (albeit begrudingly) or it will dig in its heels and be obsoleted by civil unions in their innumerable variations.
a covenant is just a fanciful word for contract–one in which almost any two people could go out monday morning and have a marriage license in a matter of hours.
as current american heterosexual marriages only work out 51% of the time, i’d say that’s a damn shabby covenant. it seems that marriage is a dying standard, and knee-jerk heterosexuals want to make it even more exclusive and restrictive.
i can tell you what effect that has on me. i’d sooner do anything else than get married and be associated with a covenant of discrimination. throwing out the baby with the bathwater…? what baby?
and that’s what’s probably going to happen. marriage will either be ****** to expand (albeit begrudingly) or it will dig in its heels and be obsoleted by civil unions in their innumerable variations.