Marriage Vs Marriage.. A question

[clublights]

Ok So I have a question.

Now I know this is going to bring up some emotional responses but that is not really what I'm looking for just honest explanations.

I have brought this up to the mods they while saying " I don't wanna touch it with a ten foot pole" have given me the go ahead.

I have no real issue with Gay Marriage.

I understand that is is against The Bible, and I have no qualms with that nor is that my question.

What I'm wondering is how exactly ( or your opinion heh) does a couple of guys or gals getting married hurts traditional marriage ( outside of what the bible says)

I frankly just do not understand how it hurts. I've been married... I've been divorced. With failed marriages reaching almost 50% of all marriages I just don't get it.


I wanted to ask here because this site generally leans right and I know I'll get more answer to my question here then anywhere else.



So again here's the question:

Setting aside the issue within The Bible, How does gay marriage hurt traditional marriage?

A couple of final Warnings/ Notices:

1. I'm NOT out to change anyones opinion on either side of the issue but possibly my own.
2. The Mods are going to keep an eye on this and will lock it up if we get out of hand.
3. We are all adults and lets act like it ( at least for this one thread)
4. PLEASE leave the emotions at the door as much as ya can on this one.
5. I thank you in advance for helping me understand the issue better.

[Tinelement]

Ready......go!!

[kanekutter05]

I thought this was going to be some marriage battle. I was going to volunteer my wife and I

If you're excluding the Biblical reasons, then I dont think I have anything to add here

[Badger]

I don't see how it hurts anything, but then again I'm not of a Christian based faith.

If a gay or lesbian couple wants to marry each other it doesn't affect me, my wife, my children in any way shape or form. IF/when it does, I'd likely deal with it at that time and in my own way.... which is probably outside of a majority way of thinking also, but hey.... I live back here in the woods.... people seriously disappear.




Badger

[Mtn.man]

Everyone wanted a pc of the Rock

[TFOGGER]

I personally have no qualms with homosexuals getting married. They have every right to be as miserable as the rest of us. The flip side is that they should have to abide by all that that legally implies: divorce, inheritance, taxation, child support, alimony, etcetera. No rights without equal responsibility. Legally, marriage is a contract between 2 people. In the eyes of the law, the genitalia of those people should be irrelevant.

Socially, traditional marriage supporters believe that allowing nontraditional marriage to be sanctioned by the government will somehow dilute the "sanctity" of their marriages. I personally believe that the .gov should not be in the marriage business.

[Ah Pook]

<sticking fingers in the fan>

I have no problem with gay marriage. From a government standpoint, it is a way to track marriage/divorce, just like straight couples. Marriage, in the eyes of the state, would/should give gay couples the rights as straight couples. Some of those rights being legal and medical decisions, taxing status, insurance, etc...

I don't see how gay marriage can/will effect the tradition of straight marriage. With close to a 50% divorce rate, what is there to effect?

[SA Friday]

It doesn't really. Considering the majority of the country has a religion based on he tree of Abraham, the majority of moralities are based on those various teachings and all have the teaching of the old testament in common. You really cannot separate the root of a moral belief from ones modern ethics. Unfortunately, anyone using Levidticus as a justifiable moral compass has never read that portion of the old testament.

[Pancho Villa]

The Conservative argument is that the family (specifically the relatively new judeo-christian family, since Old Testament figures routinely had many wives/concubines) is the foundation of society, and any deviation from that would spell disaster in the long run.

(It somehow did not spell disaster to these old testament figures who were, to all accounts, quite Godly and had many wives, but hey. Times a-change.)

It tracks pretty well with the general Conservative view that America's success is due to a specific godliness and being favored by God, rather than specific secular policies that have been implemented. That is the reason a lot (not all, but a lot) of conservatives seem so free market at first; really, it's less being pro-free-market as much as thinking the real important things like gay marriage, abortion, and other social issues will make or unmake America.

As always, those views are subject to alteration or being disregarded by individual conservatives, but if you track conservative/christian theological thinking.

A great review of how Christian theology in the modern age in America applies to politics is "Politics According to the Bible: A Comprehensive Resource for Understanding Modern Political Issues in Light of Scripture" by Wayne Grudem. You can argue about his intepretations and fudging of certain things a lot, but he's a hardcore theologian that writes textbook for the school of thought that dominates Seminaries and has for over a decade now.

Basically, if your pastor is under 40 or 45, odds are he was taught from textbooks written by Grudem or someone like him. From the pastors people absorb ideas; and thus an astonishingly small minority of people determine the long-term direction of a church-going nation.

Fascinating, no?

[ghettodub]

That's always kind of been my question too. I was not raised, nor have I ever been, religious. It seems like some people I've talked with states that this is mentioned in the old testament, but also state that a majority of Christians do not follow the old testament. If you did, wouldn't you have to follow all of it, like the no tattoos, no shaving or cutting hair above a certain area, etc.

Would love to learn more about it.