“Swiftly and soon, more than a third of Americans will be living under legal same-sex marriage regimes …[National Organization for Marriage] seeks to educate the public about the consequences of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, especially for children and people of faith.”
This is a quote taken directly from “The Threat to Marriage” on the National Organization for Marriage’s website. They explain “Why Marriage Matters” in three different ways – for Jews, for Catholics and for Protestants. This group doesn’t care if you believe in Jesus or not, which, ironically, is where Christians draw the line for whether or not you’re going to hell. They simply want you to fight an “attack on the fabric of marriage.”
Many claim that marriage is a Christian institution. This couldn’t be more wrong. As far as Christianity goes, marriage is a defect. As Edward Gibbon, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, wrote, “The use of marriage was permitted only to his fallen posterity, as a necessary expedient to continue the human species, and as a restraint … on the natural licentiousness of desire.”
The Bible even states that being married can distract one from being able to fully worship God. Paul wrote, “It is good for a man not to marry. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs … But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world – how he can please his wife – and his interests are divided,” (1 Cor 7:32-34). The Bible also states that giving up all carnal pleasures, even between a married couple, is best:“There are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it,” (Matt 19:12).
Historically speaking, marriage’s origin can be traced back to the Sumerians, a cradle of civilization primarily existing between the fifth and third millennia. This civilization predates the ancient Israelites, from which we have Judeo-Christianity, who existed between the 13th and 5th centuries BCE (or Before Common Era) before being referred to as “Jews.”
The earliest found “marriage certificate,” however, involves a Jewish man who received a healthy 14-year-old bride for six cows. It wasn’t until the 12th century CE (or Common Era) that the troubadours had the notion of courtship and romance.
Furthermore, we don’t belong to a nation founded on Christianity. This belief, and many others, belongs to a group of people referred to as Christian revisionists. The 1796 Treaty with Tripoli, a treaty unanimously approved by the Senate in 1797, says, “the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”
Most of the founding fathers were neither Christians nor atheists, but deists who did not believe in Christ’s divinity and believed in a god that did not communicate or interact with humans. The only orthodox Christian of the group was John Jay, who, with his belief that Catholics shouldn’t hold office, among other notions, was not in the majority.
The first use of “In God We Trust” in currency was on the two-cent coin in 1864, after an increase in religious sentiment during the period of the Civil War. It wasn’t until the 1950s that “under God” was incorporated into the Pledge of Allegiance, and “In God We Trust” began appearing on all coins and currency while becoming our national motto. In fact, Thomas Jefferson’s “unalienable rights” clause originally read as follows, “All men are created equal and independent. From that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable,” without using the word “creator.”
So if the concept of marriage predates Christianity and Judaism, was essentially frowned upon by Jesus and Paul for disabling one to fully worship God and we belong to a nation that was founded by deists seeking a separation of church and state, why is religion being used as an argument against gay marriage and marriage equality?
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