Define Marriage

[Jenny A]

Now that the word marriage has been changed from the legal and sacred union of one man and one woman what DOES it mean? What are the boundaries that distinguish it from other contractual arrangements, social obligations, and familial relationships?

What it has meant since people started getting married, a legally recognized sexual relationship between two people which grants those two people certain rights and obligations.  Whether there is any sacred component has varied widely with time and place.  So has whether the relationship is lifelong or, has involved more than one spouse, etc.

Here in Oregon marriage: 1) annuls all previous wills and gives the spouses inheritance rights in each others property; 2) changes one's income taxes; 3) makes one jointly responsible financially for one's spouse; 4) allows for certain medical decisions to be made for each other in the case that one partner is incapacitated; 5)  causes an irrebuttable presumption that all children born during the marriage are the children of both spouses; 6) prevents spouses from alienating real property without the consent of the other spouse;  7) allows the spouses to hold property as joint tenants by the entirety; 8) may allow spouses to be insured through their spouses employers .  I'm sure I'm forgetting a few. 

Some but not all of those rights could be contracted separately without marriage.  But some, like the irrebuttable presumption regarding children born in wedlock, the right to own property as tenants by the entirety, change in tax status, or the inability to alienate real property cannot.  Unlike a business partnership there are laws regarding the break-up of the marriage that require division of property according to need as well as contract.   I can't see how same sex marriage would change any of those things. 

The law does not include a sacred component.  For that you need a religion.

[Regina]

Marriage is so sacred to Christians that they need a secular government to issue licenses in order to legitimize it. 
One would also expect Christians not to divorce if Mark 10:9 was taken as seriously as the passages invoked to discriminate against homosexuals, but we all know what reality demonstrates in this regard. I wonder if proper Christian bakers are as passionate about not baking cakes for those Christian divorcees that are remarrying?

Preach, girl, preach.

[Nope]

If Christians are worried about the sacredness of marriage then they should figure out how to keep their fellow theists from getting divorced before they start to worry about same sex couples getting married.

I have never understood how two men falling in love and getting married has any influence on how someone else views their own marriage.

[Regina]

These manchildren act like gays getting married means suddenly everyone has to have a gay marriage, and that they'll get the clap just from breathing the same air.

And girl these republicans who think the gays want to run rampant fucking every man they get their hands on... have several seats, I've never seen one republican politician I'd put my johnson anywhere near.

[*Deidre*]

Christians and the 'sacredness' of marriage...omfg.

Studies have shown...stats show that evangelical Christians have the highest divorce rates.

Say it ain't so.

[Esquilax]

Now that the word marriage has been changed from the legal and sacred union of one man and one woman what DOES it mean? What are the boundaries that distinguish it from other contractual arrangements, social obligations, and familial relationships?

Who would have thought that changing a single pair of gender pronouns to gender neutral ones would be so beyond the intellectual reach of so many christians?

To be clear, the definition of marriage hasn't changed, only the subject attributions have. In the same way that the mechanics of, say, voting didn't change when additional people were allowed to vote, the mechanics of marriage also haven't changed, nor were they ever what was under discussion. You can actually change individual elements of a thing, without scrapping the entire definition and rebuilding it from scratch into something necessarily completely different from what it was before, and it's completely ridiculous for you to assert that.

[vorlon13]

Now that the word marriage has been changed from the legal and sacred union of one man and one woman what DOES it mean? What are the boundaries that distinguish it from other contractual arrangements, social obligations, and familial relationships?

One man, one woman

ONCE.


You used the word 'sacred' so I'm inferring a Christer angle to your OP.  So, let's get it RIGHT.  One man, one woman, ONCE.

OK, resume the thread.

[Iroscato]

Now that the word marriage has been changed from the legal and sacred union of one man and one woman what DOES it mean? What are the boundaries that distinguish it from other contractual arrangements, social obligations, and familial relationships?

*Narrows eyes, sniffs the air*
I say, I do believe I detect a hint of Gradually Crumbling Resolve in there. Perhaps a touch of Opening Mind To New Concepts And Accepting Them Instead Of Dismissing Them Outright. Most interesting...

[Faith No More]

How come people complaining about the sanctity of marriage don't seem to have a problem with reality shows where you compete to marry someone or drive-thru wedding chapels?

[Mr.wizard]

How come people complaining about the sanctity of marriage don't seem to have a problem with reality shows where you compete to marry someone or drive-thru wedding chapels?

Because it has nothing to do with caring about the sanctity of marriage, it really is just about oppressing homosexuals any way they can.