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• Monday, August 18, 2008 05:16 PM

  Wychwood and others re marriage

  It seems to me that a sensible solution about "marriage," the word and the issue, is to decide that everyone who applies for a marriage license at some point in the process, if they want a legal relationship, turns in a form that creates a civil union, a state-created, secular "marriage" called a civil union. Those who want a religious ratification of that state-created civil union go to the church, temple, mosque, whatever, that they follow for a religiously blessed union called marriage, grand pooh-pah, or whatever, that is performed according to the religious rites of the institution the couple believes in. Thus everyone would start with a civil union, that would be the default setting, with all the rights and privileges now associated with marriage, and, then, if they want, the couple would have that union sanctified by the religious institution of their choice. Marriage then becomes, as it should, not a legal state, but a religious one, and a civil union becomes the state recognized legal relationship. In other words, everyone starts with a civil union and that is sufficient unto itself, and marriage is just an optional religious ceremony like baptism, confirmation, ordination, whatever, organized by religious institutions according to belief, tradition, and custom.

  —Linda-english Read Linda-english's other letters
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