This whole debate is about the wrong thing. Let each church perform its marriages. Make no laws about whether the state, other churches, or anyone needs to recognize the marriage. Attach no rights or privileges to marriage. Get the government all the way out of marriage.
Parents can have custody of children without marriage. People can own property together without marriage. People can get healthcare without marriage.
So you’d be forced to use a church to get married, or pay higher taxes because the government won’t provide you a secular option? This is not a solution…
Also, giving churches this sole power will only lead to arranged / child marriages, because Christians love that shit.
People deserve the right to a courthouse marriage, and the government shouldn’t let an official’s superstitions interfere with their duties.
Why does the government need to be involved in the religious union?
If you need rights or protections from the government, get those separately. Why does a religious wedding need to be involved? Why should a religious wedding be involved in how much you pay in taxes? If you want to declare joint/family tax filing, why get the church involved? Just fill out and submit a form with the involved parties. If it’s two random adults who live together, and want to save on taxes, why include being married as some weird hurdle?
Want to prevent pedos fucking kids? Then don’t make an exception because of religious marriages. Make the law apply to everyone in all cases.
If you want a religious union and you’re gay, do that in a church that welcomes gay weddings.
People deserve a right to whatever they want to do to live their lives. Marriage just simply shouldn’t interface with a government function on any level. Legal rights to property can be hashed out with legal agreements that already exist. This would also allow all the marriage-related and child-related complexities added to the tax code to go away.
It makes the legal/emotional/religious/belief overlap not exist in a government sense, neuters the power the domestic terrorist fundie crazies would have in attempting to make everyone’s lives more painful, and removes legal noise from laws across the nation. (Oversimplification of course, there would be pitfalls that would need addressing to fill in gaps that would appear.)
Marriage as a religious function is just a holdover tradition that can continue on unabated without it feeling left out.
This whole debate is about the wrong thing. Let each church perform its marriages. Make no laws about whether the state, other churches, or anyone needs to recognize the marriage. Attach no rights or privileges to marriage. Get the government all the way out of marriage.
Parents can have custody of children without marriage. People can own property together without marriage. People can get healthcare without marriage.
So you’d be forced to use a church to get married, or pay higher taxes because the government won’t provide you a secular option? This is not a solution…
Also, giving churches this sole power will only lead to arranged / child marriages, because Christians love that shit.
People deserve the right to a courthouse marriage, and the government shouldn’t let an official’s superstitions interfere with their duties.
Why does the government need to be involved in the religious union?
If you need rights or protections from the government, get those separately. Why does a religious wedding need to be involved? Why should a religious wedding be involved in how much you pay in taxes? If you want to declare joint/family tax filing, why get the church involved? Just fill out and submit a form with the involved parties. If it’s two random adults who live together, and want to save on taxes, why include being married as some weird hurdle?
Want to prevent pedos fucking kids? Then don’t make an exception because of religious marriages. Make the law apply to everyone in all cases.
If you want a religious union and you’re gay, do that in a church that welcomes gay weddings.
People deserve a right to whatever they want to do to live their lives. Marriage just simply shouldn’t interface with a government function on any level. Legal rights to property can be hashed out with legal agreements that already exist. This would also allow all the marriage-related and child-related complexities added to the tax code to go away.
It makes the legal/emotional/religious/belief overlap not exist in a government sense, neuters the power the domestic terrorist fundie crazies would have in attempting to make everyone’s lives more painful, and removes legal noise from laws across the nation. (Oversimplification of course, there would be pitfalls that would need addressing to fill in gaps that would appear.)
Marriage as a religious function is just a holdover tradition that can continue on unabated without it feeling left out.