From: John W Burgeson (jwburgeson@juno.com)
Date: Wed Jul 16 2003 - 12:05:31 EDT
Graham quotes Margo Somerville, in part, on another aspect of the issue.
She wrote, in part: "The issue is whether society needs marriage to
institutionalize the inherently procreative relationship between a man
and a woman. I believe we do, and maintaining it should take priority.
You believe recognizing homosexual people's claims to access to marriage
should come first.
The conflict at the heart of our disagreement -- as is so often true in
ethical dilemmas -- is whether societal needs or individual rights should
prevail. Important as individual rights are, we can do serious harm in
assuming that they should always trump society's needs."
This is, of course, a tangential issue. My own POV is that Margo is
correct. I do not favor same-gender marriages, although I do think
same-gender civil unions are desirable, mainly for legal reasons.
Some of my correspondents on another list argue that since there are in
excess of 20,000 Federal and State laws (their number) on the books which
give certain rights only to married persons, that amending ALL of them to
include same gender civil unions is not practical, and so the word
"marriage" should be used. Although this argument is a valid one, it is
not (to me) persuasive. I continue to see the word "marriage" as best
reserved for a man-woman relationship.
Peace
John Burgeson (Burgy)
www.burgy.50megs.com
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