The New Jersey legislature in response to recent court rulings should consider getting out of marrying people. Marriage begun as a religious institution and should remain so. Civil governments should only issue licenses for civil unions that would between two, unrelated, consenting adults. Marriage can occur between individuals in their chosen place of worship after having signed civil union agreements. Existing marriages can be grandfathered by the state to be declared civil unions under a new law, and any existing laws pertaining to marriage can be declared to apply to any new civil union or “grandfathered marriage”. The new civil unions would have all the rights, benefits and obligations of current marriage laws, except for any religious obligations or restrictions as to religion, gender, race, creed or color. All divorces would involve application of any existing divorce laws to the new civil union where the word marriage is replaced by civil union.
People of faith should not fear “the institution of marriage” being corrupted by the prospect of gay marriage. Each house of worship can chose how it wants to deal with this issue. Since the state would only recognize civil unions, state recognized gay marriage would become a non-issue. Gays and straights would be accorded the same legal rights and protections under civil unions; religious and non-religious individuals would be free to practice their own beliefs without interference from the government as our constitution demands.
With this modest proposal, hopefully all parties could end this divisive debate and live happily ever after.
No comments:
Post a Comment