Wedding Bell Blues
I have nothing against marriage, it just never worked out, which isn’t surprising given the rather risky employment I had for a couple of decades. It really isn’t apt to work out when you can’t talk to your spouse about how you spend your time and make your money. Both the military and law enforcement have extremely high rates of divorce, so, while I lost some money on engagement rings, I didn’t spend any on divorce lawyers.
News Writer, among many others, covers the Vermont law and provides a little background on the “institution”. I would note that for many years after settlement the Massachusetts Bay Colony banned ministers from performing marriages. Their particular brand of Puritan had no use for “priests” by any name.
I was personally more interested in the Iowa decision. As I said in comments to Steve Bates’s post, this was a conservative opinion that covered the Iowa constitution, but it is just as applicable to the US Constitution.
The two points covered in the decision were equal treatment under the law and separation of church and state. If everyone is equal under the law, the government has to come up with a major justification for treating any group differently. It is the obligation of the government to show a real public interest in discriminating against a group of citizens.
The government treats individuals differently based on age. They provide research showing that children, as a group, are not ready to drive cars, drink booze, and sign contracts, so they are not allowed to do those things. The government must provide the justification before it imposes the restriction.
In the case of the marriage restrictions, there was no demonstrated public purpose served. The only discernible justification was religious in nature. This is where the separation of church and state enters the picture. The court said that the government cannot enact laws to further a religion, so there was no acceptable justification for the restriction.
The decision was based on the clear meaning of the text of the Iowa constitution. There was no spinning; there was no creative interpretation: the words said what was meant, and meant what was said. You can’t get more conservative than that.
Personally, I would just eliminate all of the special benefits that law makers at all levels have awarded to the holders of a marriage license. The only reason most people aren’t satisfied with the basic partnership agreement that marriage at its core really is, is because of all of the extra benefits that have been tacked on over the years.
It would be really nice if people would just accept that everyone has to be treated equally, and stop all of these stupid rearguard actions to preserve pointless privileges.
12 comments
i’m all for separation of church and state. marriage is something between you and the god/dess/e/s of your choice, but if you want all the legal advantages, you’ll need to get a civil union.
hipparchia´s last blog post..[for reference]
“Marriage” is a relatively new term that entered the language about 700 years ago. The older, Germanic root for the situation is “wedding”, with has the same root as “witness”, and deals with making a pledge or taking an oath.
In the process the church or state acts only as a witness to the oath, which is why a notary public can perform a “marriage” in Florida, i.e. their job is to officially notice and witness the taking of oaths and making of pledges.
The church was pulled into the process to guarantee the oaths of the powerful, for a price, of course. The landed gentry had displayed bad faith in some of their dealings, and it was decided that burning in hell for all eternity was probably more effective that going to war when people decided they really didn’t like the terms of the contract, and contract it was.
This is covered by the “bearing false witness” [number 8 for most Jews and Christians, except number 9 for Catholics and Lutherans].
Eliminate all of the special benefits and the problem goes away. Let everyone deal with the world without the automatic perqs of “marriage”, and the problem will come into focus.
Marriage is a conundrum. If a man and a woman make a contract to have sex with each other, that’s called prostitution, and both can be thrown in jail for it. Unless, of course, somebody says some magic words over them and/or files some magic documents about them with the government and/or a religious institution, in which case it’s called marriage, and gives them special privileges we single people don’t have. In an allegedly free society of alleged equals, that’s not right.
As much as I love magic in, say, Pratchett’s novels, I am growing royally tired of people’s ongoing attempts to invoke magic (some of them call it religion) in the real world, to the advantage of some and the detriment of others. Let’s have no more magic in government.
I think I just understood something. The three essential elements of the marriage contract, as distinguished from other contracts, are offer, acceptance and INconsideration. <grin_duck_run />
Shi’ia Islam in some areas offers a short term contract to avoid the prostitution problem. There will always be a lawyer willing create the necessary paperwork.
It’s a good thing that hell only existed in Jerome’s mushroom addled mind or we’d both be in for a bad eternity.
You sound like that *other* Steve, Steve! LOL Martin, I mean…
“I believe that sex is one of the most beautiful, natural, wholesome things that money can buy.” 😆
(Actually, that quote is also attributed to Tom Clancy and others… Hmmmm. Scary that so many think the same on that topic. 😉 )
Rod Stewart said: “Instead of getting married again, I’m going to find a woman I don’t like and just give her a house.”
And of course… we have Robin Williams: 😀
“Ah yes, divorce, from the Latin word meaning to rip out a man’s genitals through his wallet.”
“See, the problem is that God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time.”
I have a huge collection of these I used to post on a really boring forum years ago! LadyMin will remember..,. 😀
At least you didn’t include “Marriage is an institution … but who wants to live in an institution.”
That goes back to radio, if not telegraph.
Personally, I like marriages and children … as long as they are someone else’s.
I didn’t like working all of the holidays in the military and law enforcement because I was single and “didn’t have a family” or any of the other accommodations that were automatically made for the people who were married.
Well… I coulda added these… 😉
“My parents didn’t want to move to Florida, but they turned sixty, and that’s the law.” ~ Jerry Seinfeld.
“Bigamy is having one wife/husband too many. Monogamy is the same.” ~ Oscar Wilde.
“You don’t appreciate a lot of stuff in school until you get older. Little things like being spanked every day by a middle aged woman: Stuff you pay good money for in later life.” ~ Emo Philips.
I have others… many others! LOL
Here’s a couple of my fave quotes, unrelated, but good IMHO! Just to change subject. 😉
“When I die, I want to die like my grandmother who died peacefully in her sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in her car.” – Author unknown.
In an interview, General Norman Schwartzkopf was asked if he didn’t think there was room for forgiveness toward the people who have harboured and abetted the terrorists who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks on America. His answer was a classic:
Schwartzkopf said, “I believe that forgiving them is God’s function. Our job is simply to arrange the meeting.”
Amen! 😉 😆
You are supposed to be busy, not posting jokes on web sites.
[I know, I know, you have to take breaks before the work drives you up the wall.]
I post jokes because right now it’s either that or kill someone. 🙂 And seeing as it’s Easter… I opted for jokes. It took me all of 5 minutes to dig them out of my very well organised archival system. Now… If I could sort out my other problems as easily… I’d probably be bored most of the time. Which might be preferable to constant images of rifles and clock towers. 😉
I’ve had the worst week in a long time, it it’s not getting any better.
Happy Easter.
Ah, been there. Ii isn’t worth the paperwork, as satisfying as it might be for a short period. There are many times when it is a good thing I can no longer click a mike button and bring in death from the sky.
The jokes do break the tension, and it is time for my Easter blitz.
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