Marriage

This is an interesting article. It presents the Catholic belief of marriage. It never states whether or not same-sex marriage is right or wrong, it just presents the information. This is the best definition of marriage I have ever seen. This is exactly what I see in my mind as true "marriage". This is what any married couple should strive towards, in my opinion.

"Marriage is an unconditional, life-long commitment between two persons who promise to share all of life and love, home and hearth, body and soul; marriage necessarily involves both the fullest of communication, the deepest of understanding, and the strongest of personal loyalty and trust between two people.

In this definition, the unconditional element is most striking. Marriage is unconditional in two senses: first, the commitment is not conditioned by other commitments, no matter what they may be. Such commitments include parents, friends, one's psychological needs, career goals, spiritual interests, sexual drives, addictions of any sort, and the like. Second, in the marriage relationship, both partners confront the unconditional dimension of life and find it deeply and profoundly personal. This means that in and through one another, each partner confronts the ultimate meaning of his/her life precisely by sharing life unconditionally with another person; put differently, husband and wife discover the presence of God in the sharing of daily life with another."
Who's to say this cannot exist between same-sex couples? This guy, Dr. James Dobson who is one of my aunt's favorite preachers to waste her money on. Apparently same-sex marriage will even destroy healthcare and social security.

I couldn't read it all, it was pissing me off too much.

Let's compare the pro-slavery arguments. This allows me to believe that one day all of this discrimination will be over and seem like a shocking past, where those who oppose will look like fools and those who approve will be heroes. Though, I wouldn't be as naive to think there aren't some out there who still think the abolition of slavery was a bad thing... we'd be hard-pressed to find them. There is a lot of scriptural evidence of slavery and the promotion of slavery, but we decided as a society that it was wrong. So, what now of same-sex marriage? Why is it taking so damn long?!

Comments

josh said…
What i am getting from this is that we should assume and EXPECT the best from a marraige but that a basic premise of a lasting and meaningful marraige is the fact that we should also accept the fact that, though trying, our partners may in fact fail to provide the best of situations from time to time. This should, however hold true in the reverse... and I know personally that it does... that we must be able to accept the times that we fail to accomplish "the best" and strive to learn from these situations as an individual AND as a couple.
In essence, barring the failure of "faith, hope and love" a marraige is the ultimate example... and test... of "learning from another's mistakes" so as not to make them yourself. I think this helps me understand a lot more about the dynamic changes involved in taking the step into a marraige situation.
Instead of looking to find faults and reasons to aid in a decision regarding the future, as in a premarital relationship (ie dating, engaged), it is the responsibilty of a married couple (to eachother and to themselves) to accept individual faults as a shared fault and part of ONE marraige. This does not mean to lay blame to both, for actions are committed by the individual. However, the situational awareness in regerds to,the acceptance of, and the solving, rebuilding and forgiving, must all be shared by both partners equally.

Finally, I have found something on a personally effective spiritual level from the Catholic Church that I can agree with. No wonder I feel constantly blessed in my marraige... cloud nine... you'd think the Pope had married us according to this article.

Just for everyone elses sake though, Allie has been saying this stuff to me forever now.

I love you babe.
11/26/2005 5:31 PM
Allison said…
Josh,
I am honored that you not only read this article after not having any real sleep in who knows how many days, but that you wrote such a wonderful reply :) I love you! And, yes, you totally nailed it. Once again we agree.

Marriage is a whole separate organism in and of itself, created by the combination of two people. So, any faults that exist and any strengths that exist in those individuals are owned by the marriage.
11/26/2005 6:19 PM
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