Dear Readers, most of you will disagree with me on this point.
My own family disagrees with me, saying, What difference does it make?
But for people used to words' rarefied meanings, a USA Today reader finally pus words to
a conservative conviction on "marriage" with which I have agreed & bored anyone who would listen.
Here it is:
"I'm all for same-sex couples having all the same benefits that a traditional married couple does, and on a federal level. Just don't call it 'marriage' because it's not. Marriage is between a man and a woman. Coin a new word for 'same-sex marriage.' [I've long suggested 'garriage,' but maybe 'sarriage' -- as in same-sex -- would be more appropriate]. I'm not for the random changing of the definition of words in the dictionary."
-- Kelly Nelson
Would "sarriage" be stigmatizing? If a gay couple is proud enough of who they are to tie the knot,
what is there in Sarriage to be ashamed of?!
Commentary from my man RebJeff:
ReplyDeleteGenesis 2:20-24
The man named all the cattle, birds of the sky, and wild animals, but no match was found for a man. Adonai God cast a deep sleep upon the man and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh in its place. Adonai God fashioned the rib that God had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. The man said, "This time [God has brought me] bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. I will call this one 'woman,' since she was taken from 'man.'" That is why a man leaves his mother and father and attaches himself to his woman so they will be one flesh. (Genesis 2:21-24)
This is the most common passage offered as evidence of a biblical definition of marriage, although, usually only the last verse is cited. When you read the whole story, though, it is clear that this passage is not about marriage.
This story is an etiology, a story that explains how the world came to be the way it is. The purpose of the story is to explain why human beings appear in two different forms, male and female. God determined that the man needed a match, a partner who was his equal. (The common translation "helper" or "helpmeet" is incorrect. The word ezer means "strength" or "power" in Biblical Hebrew, not "help.") God had to fashion a new being for the man from the man's own body, since none of the newly created animals could match him. That being was named "woman" (ishah) because she was taken from "man" (ish).
The story also explains why men seek out women and why "he attaches himself to his woman to form one flesh" (I'll leave it to your imagination to figure out what that's talking about). The story explains that this desire to connect bodies is an impulse that overrides even a man's attachment to his parents.
This passage does not define anything. Rather, it is an explanation of why the world is as we see it. There are two kinds of human beings who are made out of the same stuff and, because of that, they are attracted to each other in sexual union.
It is interesting that this, of all verses, is used to suggest that human beings should only partner with people who are unlike themselves, when the clear meaning is that the man and woman are right for each other because they are the same. Also, the passage makes no reference to having children. It cannot be argued from this verse that the sole purpose of sexual union is procreation.
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