Marriage

what is the point of marriage? If the only point of marriage is to be the highest expression of romantic love, then evangelical opposition to homosexual marriage is just mean. It would be mean to say to some people that their love is unworthy of expression in marriage while other people get the sanction of the state on their love for one another.

This is the argument that homosexual marriage activists make. Any caring person would certainly agree with that argument if the point of marriage is to express romantic love.

but that isn’t the primary point of marriage. and it never has been the primary point of marriage in any society in any time. as I pointed out a while back, a liberal democratic anthropologist made the secular case against homosexual marriage as well as anybody can. Marriage is for having and raising children.

However, once this principle is washed away, then there is no principled basis for denying marriage to anyone who wants to use it as the highest expression of their romantic love for another or others.

check out this article to see the next shoe to fall in the marriage wars.

As Newsweek magazine makes clear, some new flashpoints are getting restless.

Polyamory, reports Newsweek, is having a “coming-out-party.”  Polyamory is the current “term of art” applied to “families” or “clusters” comprised of multiple sexual partners. As Newsweek explains, this is not exactly polygamy, because marriage is not the issue. Advocates of polyamory argue that their lifestyle is not “open marriage.” Indeed, they define their movement in terms of the moral principle of “ethical nonmonogamy,” defined as “engaging in loving, intimate relationships with more than one person — based upon the knowledge and consent of everyone involved.”

in addition to polyamory/polygamy, if marriage is primarily only the highest expression of romantic love, then there is no principled barrier to a marriage between a parent and a grown child. There is no principled barrier to the marriage of grown siblings. and so on.

once anything goes, then anything will go.

You can say that this is just a slippery slope argument and you would be correct. On the other hand, this slope is slippery and there are no visible ledges or moguls where things might get hung up and/or slowed down.

do any of you see any?