Friday, October 28, 2005

Marriage Yet Again

Hot on the heels of my comments on marriage yesterday, Jason Kuznicki at Positive Liberty has just posted what is probably the most compelling argument I've read to date in favor of same-sex marriage.

My own reservations on this issue stem from the understanding that, if God does indeed disapprove of all gay relationships, it means that there would be negative societal consequences stemming from their normalization. I'll be interested to see if conservatives come up with any good counterarguments to Jason's points.

In the meantime I'll just reiterate the point that "God said so" is just as bad a justification for public policy decisions as it was during the Inquisition...

Addendum: Jason has reiterated in subsequent posts that he is merely trying to reframe the marriage debate without advocating for or against same-sex marriages, so I add that disclaimer here. All the same, in my opinion defining marriage by its nurturing/caretaking aspects (as opposed to the procreative and romantic angles usually emphasized) automatically strengthens the case of gay marriage advocates.

2 comments:

Eric said...

"it is a reciprocal agreement with another individual (and often with God), to look after the total well-being of that person and of any children that might come into your mutual care”

i like the way Jason articulates marriage in this way - the context of nurturing. I'll be chewing on this for a bit.

Thanks E!

Eric
Two World Collision

Mark said...

But of course, he wouldn't reframe it if he didn't have a reason for doing so. I think it's a good reason, mind. But the implications aof the reframing are hard to miss and his protestations could be seen as a bit, I dunno ... "disingenous" seems a bit strong but along those lines.