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Legal
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On MarriageMarriage Is Not About Individual RightsMarriage isn’t about individual rights; it isn’t about love; nor is it about compatibility. Marriage is about the rights of society. The rights of the society supersede the rights of the individual. Marriage is about society’s rights because society’s survival depends on the actions of its members. Marriage between one man and one woman especially in childbearing years has been subjected to society’s laws and rules for hundred if not thousands of years. The reason is simple: society has a right to survive and births through marriages help stabilize and ensure that possibility. Marriage laws and rules protect the society and for this reason marriage must be defined to protect the society - not the individual. Unions and partnerships have been around as long as marriage but these have generally been officially unrecognized and in some cases punishments have been used to chill the ardor of a wandering heart. Same-sex partnerships are as old as sex but it has never been granted the same status and rights as marriage because society has so far deemed marriage more necessary to its survival than same-sex unions. At one time marriage was allowed between close relatives, primarily as a means to protect a bloodline or simply because no one else was deemed worthy. Society and genetic flaws put an end to this tradition. To prevent further problems, society created marriage rules to protect itself through its gene pool. Most countries and most states in the U.S. have laws governing who can marry whom. Most prohibit a marriage between siblings, parents, and grandparents. Some limit marriage to a relative if that person is a first-cousin or closer. To attempt to redefine marriage is an attempt at changing history and society’s marriage tradition. Marriage has never been about the comfort and safety of the individual but, instead, about the comfort and safety of society. In the modern age, a family unit has traditionally been one man and one woman. While there are variations in this unit, those variations are not sufficient reason to change its traditional meaning. Yes, there are single Mothers, single Fathers, single and married grandparents, as well as same-sex parents raising children but the traditional family unit definition should remain and be enforced by society. Marriage is not about individual freedom; it is about the responsibility of society. For this reason, society has both the right and the obligation to limit who can legally acquire a marriage license. Marriage is not about individual rights it is about the rights of society. Marriage is not about civil rights. To equate same-sex marriage to the struggle for civil rights is to belittle the efforts, struggles, and even murders of those who made civil rights a national issue. Marriage is no more a right than driving a car is a right. The rules of marriage are based on tradition and rooted in common law. There will always be some who are uncomfortable with existing traditions but for the sake of society some traditions must remain unchanged. Author: Don Miller
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2004 Articles |
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