I
read an article from proquest on the frcc database about what marriage means. There
were some very insightful points that were raised about the issue of marriage
in general.
Marriage hasn't always been
traditional. It wasn’t connected to Christianity the way it is today until
after 1215 when the Roman Catholic Church first defined it. How marriage is
defined has a huge impact on how it is viewed.
What is the definition of marriage? Merriam
Webster defines marriage as “the state of being united to a person of the
opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship
recognized by law (2) : the state of being united to a
person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage <same-sex
marriage>.”By this definition, marriage between men and women is a
legal commitment. Does everyone define marriage this way?
What about religion? If two people
were married through the church but not legally, would they still be married? If
two people were married legally only and not through church then would they
still be married? It depends on how you define marriage but is it defined
differently for everyone?
“… if you change any marriage rule,
you’re changing the very definition of marriage... Define marriage as a lifetime commitment, and divorce flouts its very
definition. Define marriage as a vehicle for legitimate procreation, and
contraception violates that definition. Define marriage as a complete union of
economic interests, and allowing women to own property divides the family into
warring fragments. Define marriage as a bond between one man and one woman, and
same-sex marriage is absurd.”
So changing any marriage rule means
changing its definition. A woman proposing to a man would definitely be
a change to the marriage rules. What are these rules?
Changing the definition of a word
means changing the meaning of it. It would mean changing your complete
knowledge of something. Most people will understand something by the
experiences they’ve had. If one grows up in a family where both parents, heterosexual,
have been together for 30 years then his/her concept of marriage is going to be
different than one who grows up with divorced parents or with two moms or two
dads, and so on.
"Altering marriage would virtually
destroy the moral and social efficacy of the marriage institution.” Why? Why
does it have to go to that extreme? What is the moral and social efficacy of
the marriage institution? What is the marriage institution?
“But
define marriage as a commitment to live up to the rigorous demands of love, to
care for each other as best as you humanly can, and all these
possibilities--divorce, contraception, feminism, marriage between two women or
two men--are necessary, even inevitable.”
It
is fascinating how slightly expanding the definition of a word can expand its
meaning by so much.
Marriage is
tied to law and religion. How does this impact women? How does law and religion
view women? Does this have an impact on women being able to propose marriage to
men?