MARRIAGE EQUALITY NATIONWIDE

[SteelCurtain]

Here are the verses that were used to 'define' marriage in the segregated south:

It is also worthwhile to remember that most white people, when these laws were written, literally thought of blacks as a different, lower breed of human who would lead whites into depravity and away from God.



(this one was also used to promote segregation.)

They misinterpreted scripture, as these warning were given because of the depravity of the spouses they were taking. It had nothing to do with their genetic make-up, but rather to do with their immorality and their worship of other gods. The bible does caution against christians marrying non-christian spouses as Paul spoke of being "unequally yoked", but christians still recognized those marriages and we're commanded to remain in them unless the non-believing spouse were to abandon the other. I'm one of those by the way. "Unequally yoked" referred to their spiritual status. I agree that people were using verses such as these to justify banning inter-racial marriages, but the bible was not speaking against interracial marriage. In fact, foreigners could convert to judaism and as fellow believers be considered morally acceptable. Even at that, the Jews still recognized marriages to non-believing foreigners to be valid marriages. It happened quite regularly, by the way

Ah.. but now we're getting to the nitty gritty. You keep switching to how the Jews defined marriage from how America has defined marriage. Whether those Americans interpreted scripture differently that you is not the point. They interpreted scripture and defined their marriages that way. Your ad hoc look back doesn't change that. As Americans, we have redefined marriage several times via the SCOTUS. Whether you agree that the 'original' American definition was the right one is a moot point. American courts have honed down what a marriage is and can be for centuries. From laws of coverture (another religious upheaval---women were to have legal rights even after they were married?!?!? pshaw!!!), to interracial marriage, to women's rights to her person within a marriage (spousal rape) we have been changing what marriage means. And every fucking time it is the knuckle dragging religious right that has to be dragged in by their ears with the idea of traditional marriage.

This isn't the first time that your precious institution has changed. In fact, this is really an extremely minor change with respect to how it affects you. (Which is not at all.) Some of the other decisions actually affected existing marriages. When laws of coverture were tossed, a man's wife suddenly could purchase property without his permission, and enter into contracts without his permission. The horrors! After marriage was redefined such that a man couldn't take sex from his spouse just because they were married, a man (or woman) could face criminal charges for taking sex from his (or her) spouse without her (or his) permission.