Okay, big doings in Arizona as Governor Brewer may or may not sign a bill into law that will, GASP!, permit businesses to associate with whomever they want to associate! That's antigayhomophobicbigotedchristofascistgodbaggery!
This has led a few people from the right and the left to call for marriage privatization. That is to say "get the government out of marriage".
Now, my views on most political issues are "cut government, cut taxes, privatize it". That applies to just about everything. Just about. But not everything. Marriage is a good example of my "just about everything" clause.
Whether anybody likes it or not, marriage is a spiritual union between one man and one woman. Period, end of discussion. But marriage is also a legal union between two people (for now) recognized by the State. It must be this way. Be it for taxation, inheritance, visitation, legal testimony and other things, the government has a role to play. Whether anybody likes it or not
It's well and good to argue that the government has no business being in the marriage business. And in a world where divorce is rare and would be adjudicated exclusively through churches or private arbiters, privatization even makes some amount of sense. But this isn't a perfect world. The Left has done all it can to enshrine divorce as an institution in this country. Property laws being what they are, the government has to rule on these things.
It's not "fair", it's not "right", but it's the way things are.
I really wish the panty-waist libertarian wing of the Republican Party would adopt a consistent line on when the government should or shouldn't take action. They pipe up everytime one of these "same-sex marriage" issues comes along but somehow their commitment to constitutional government stops short of little things like cutting entitlements and balancing the budget.
This is a contentious issue. One side wants marriage to be legally defined the way it has been for millennia in western civilization. The other side wants to redefine the word and entire concept.
One side will win and the other will lose. It's that simple.
And honestly, I don't really even care about it very much. When it comes to the "gay agenda", I don't care about the "gay" part. The "agenda" part... that's something else.
What people do with each other behind closed doors doesn't affect me. Therefore it doesn't concern me. It's not my job to "rescue" people from these things. What I care about is being free to practice my religion in peace.
Now, The Secular Chorus always sings that our priests, churches and religious organizations will "never" be forced to perform unions they have a religious objection to.
Right now though, people are getting dragged into court and sued into oblivion because they don't want to do business with gay people, usually on religious grounds. So I hope the marriage-redefiners can at least see why I and others are concerned here.
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