Reflections on the Institution of Marriage | Capital Commentary

Reflections on the Institution of Marriage | Capital Commentary by Amy Black.  MGB: In response, the words of both Genesis and their use by Jesus can be updated to account for gay marriage, as the becoming of one flesh applies not only to sexual union but also to the legal one. Marriage is the basic building block of families, including gay families with children from adoption, inheritance, a prior union or the wonders of modern procreative medicine.  Such unions are no less worthy of protection than marriages between those past their child bearing years.  Indeed, there would be no such demand for these unions had hospitals, particularly religious ones, honored the wishes of the gay partner as they would the married one vis-a-vis the family of origin.  Had these relationships been honored when it mattered most, the demand for marriage would not be so strong.  There are those who say marriage should be only a religious matter.  This is also mistaken.  Marriage is the basic unit of family law.  Without it, the State must make the end-of-life decisions now reserved to next of kin.  It is time for us to realize that we can as a society and must change how marriage is constituted and move on before the Courts do it for us.  Likewise, churches will eventually celebrate these unions, not because the state says so, but because doing so is good for the families, just as it is good for heterosexual marriage.