Monday, June 29, 2015

Traditional Marriage? What exactly is that?

So, unless you have been living under a rock, you now know that the Supreme Court voted in favor of marriage equality! In my opinion, it's about time. This is America! We should have long had the right to marry, and love, who we choose regardless of race, religion, gender, nationality, and whatever else there is out there! Yet, there have been struggles along to the way for all types of people who wanted nothing more than to be together.

 It wasn't until 1967 that the Supreme Court legalized interracial marriages. A study was done to show that less than half of the nation approved.......sound familiar? I notice a lot of people sharing meme's that show something like that and compare it something that happened today and say things like "oh we never heard anyone complaining then." Ahhhh, if only social media had even been around then to be an outlet for people to share their feelings/opinions. We would probably be horrified reading it today. 

Now there have been a few pictures going around the past few days that you have most likely seen as well.



Being the curious person I am, I decided to do some research into what exactly a traditional marriage is. There had to be more to it than just how a traditional marriage is only one man and one woman, and I was surely right. Now I'm not going to sit here writing this and pretend I'm a super religious person, anyone who truly knows me (not that many people do) knows I am far from that. I do believe in God, but that's about as far as that goes. I'm also not going to pretend to be an expert on the bible, I have never read it cover to cover. I am to skeptical, and question far to much, to say that I am a believer of that book. I am not going to blindly follow a priest, preacher, or whatever else is out there without questioning things. Just not how I live life or operate and I find a lot of "Christians" to be hypocrites. But that's not really what I'm trying to get at here, so I will move on.

What I found on tradition marriage is that it is state instituted and ordained by God for the LIFELONG relationship between one man as husband and one woman as wife. It is suppose to be a gift from God and a sacred institution. Now one could point out that is does say between a man and woman. I see that. Do you also notice the word lifelong? That would lead one to believe that the people posting pictures, like those above, have never been divorced. Matthew 19:8 says "I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery" Adultery is a sin, just like there are many other sins out there. I have seen a lot of "Christians" in the past few days who seem to want to indicate that "gay marriage" is worse. I just wonder who is anyone to decide how the different sins rank? A sin is a sin is a sin. However, I personally don't believe loving someone is a sin. See what I mean about questioning things and being a skeptic? I can't go along with something that teaches prejudice, or exclusion, towards anyone for being in love. 

I'm curious.......How many of you out there who are against marriage equality still married? Have never divorced? Have only had sex with their spouse and no one else? Were a virgin when they got married? Are not having pre-marital sex or sex outside of a marriage? Now what was it they said again about casting the first stone?

Now I found a few interesting things about "traditional marriage" in the bible. In the Old Testament times the traditional marriage meant a husband and wife could have the same father. (So the bible promotes incest but two men or two woman marrying is wrong?)

In the bible, Abraham and Sarah couldn't have kids so she allowed him to have another woman to have children with. Their slave Hagar. But wait, doesn't the same bible say this is a sin? He is laying with a woman who isn't his wife....that's adultery. 

In the old testament time, it was considered traditional for a man to have multiple wives. It was accepted by the church. But doesn't the bible, and all those meme's, say one man and one woman? I don't see people posting one man, several wives!

I don't understand how "Christians", or anyone for that matter, can pick and choose what they want from the bible to support their cause, while ignoring the rest. If you want a traditional marriage, go have one (same sex marriage doesn't have anything to do with your individual relationship or marriage) but don't forget the bibles guidelines (some listed above)  for if you want to go with one thing the bible says, you need to follow it all. I don't understand how two men marrying, or two woman marrying is affecting your life in any way, shape, or form. 

 The bible says, the bible says, the bible says. But I think people tend to forget not everyone lives their lives that way. Not everyone is the perfect christian, matter of fact I don't know anyone who is. You think being gay is a sin, and that's wrong.  Do not pass go, do not collect $200.  However, when you sin it's all good. You are only human and it's ok to make mistakes.....just as long as you aren't gay you are good. 

I DO NOT believe loving someone is a sin and I will NEVER think that way. I don't give two hoots what the bible or the church says about it. I don't believe that God, or Jesus,  will exclude someone from Heaven for loving someone and living a happy life. I see a lot of people on social media throwing around scripture that suggests Jesus is unforgiving and only loves certain people. I believe Jesus loves everyone.....period.

It makes me sad to think of my son growing up in a place so one-minded, so unwilling to be open to other ways of life, so prejudiced towards certain things and certain people. I don't want him to be taught that any one person is inferior to others. I want him to be open minded and, at the very least, accepting of everyone regardless of race, religion, or sexuality.

I, like most people hope for their children, hope he will get married and give me grandchildren. If he came to me in 5 years and said "Hey mom, I'm gay" I would love him just the same! I would give him every ounce of love and support that I am capable of giving. I am happy that if that happened, he will now be able to get married to the person he wanted to share his life with. He would still be able to have children be it through adoption, or a surrogate.  Most importantly, I would never raise him in a way where he would be scared to come tell me anything.  I will support him no matter how he chooses to live his life. His happiness is what matters most to me. 

 If that were to happen, I am saddened that there are people in our lives who wouldn't support him at all. I know there are people who would likely flat out disown him. That just sickens me and makes me want to protect him now from those people so they don't push those same beliefs and ways of thinking on him.  I want him to be a free thinker and not a follower. He has learned about God, Jesus and Mary a little, but I don't raise him in the church. I don't want to force religion on him.  I want him to decide what he wants to believe and how he wants to live life. 

Well, it seems like I went off of quite a few tangents there. I would like to congratulate all the couples who have already filed for a marriage license! I was never sure this would happen in our time, but always had high hopes! Thank God for the Supreme Court and marriage equality!