Why Gay Marriage is Wrong - A Legal Perspective
Why the President of the United States Can’t Marry People
What does it mean when the state decides that two people are married? It decides that they can be considered spouses for immigration applications, tax returns, share benefit plans from work, share insurance policies, and it can give them certain privileges when and if there is a divorce like alimony. All of these things comprise an interaction with the bureaucracy of the state and not the spirit of the two people involved. None of the responsibilities and duties of a couple civilly unified by the state tell the couple about their emotional, spiritual or psychological responsibilities toward one another. They are, for all intents and purposes, still separate individual people under the law, just joined together for some bureaucratic chores. This is why this is called a “civil union” and not a marriage.
Why is the state not permitted to “marry” people? This is because marriage is a religious sacrament and not a civil one. Marriage is a religious sacrament because it is a religious idea. It is the idea that two people can be spiritually unified together by some set of rituals. Because the state, created by man, is a material entity and not a spiritual one, it cannot ratify spiritual functions. As such, it makes no sense for a mayor, or a president to be able to marry two people and say that they are spiritually unified, because he has no spiritual authority over them.
Only members of an organized religion can get married
What gives a person spiritual authority? When you follow an organized religion, there are certain people within that religion that have the authority to perform certain spiritual rituals. They lead their lives in certain ways, make certain sacrifices and often do not live like everyone else, for example Catholic Priests, Hindu Pundits, and Muslim Imams. They are learned and wise people in the community who are trusted with the responsibility of spiritual learning, and therefore can carry out rites like the sacrament of marriage.
What about someone who is not religious? Someone who does not belong to an organized religion, by definition, cannot get married. If someone is a “spiritual person,” it means they believe in the existence of a spiritual dimension to life, but do not follow the rules of an organized religion. Organized religion is what creates the concept of marriage as existing in a social framework. Acknowledging the existence of a spiritual dimension alone does not create any set of values of principles by which you can interact with that dimension and treat other people with regard to it. So if a “spiritual person” wanted to get married, they would have to admit that there are certain ways that they need to treat the person they are marrying. Without the boundaries and principles articulated by organized religion, they have no way of justifying the promises they would make to the person they are marrying. “You must cherish each other” Why? “You must ask before travelling to a new country” Why? “You must be faithful” Why? If your answer is common decency and respect, I ask you again, why? Why should we treat our spouse in this way?
Where do these values come from and who ratifies them? If you are a merely spiritual person, there is no guarantee that the values you follow are the same as the ones that the person you’re marrying follows. More importantly, there’s nothing holding you to those values long term without an organized religion. There is no guarantee for your spiritual commitment for life! Remember, contracts signed in the material world are ratified by material governments, by the state, and they have no spiritual authority.
On to the Gays: