The Archbishop Is So Out Of Touch
I shall be sitting down to Christmas lunch with two same-sex couples in long term relationships. So what right does this dinosaur of a churchman have to condemn gay marriage?
None! In my view.
I don’t know the scriptures well, but I do seem to have read that Jesus opened his ministry to all. He is said to have healed a Roman centurion’s servant in both Luke and Matthew. I don’t think that Roman soldiers were the most popular people at that time.
Let’s face it too, but unmarried priests really know nothing about how a marriage is a real strength in human life. As someone, who was married for nearly forty years, I have a lot more experience than he has.
A Problem With Not Recognising Gay Marriage
When some countries recognise gay marriage and others don’t you are going to get a few problems.
This story from the United States, illustrates one small but sometimes expensive problem well.
Edith Windsor was legally married to her gay partner in Canada, five years ago. Her partner has since died and because she now lives in New York, she will have to pay $600,000 in what in the UK would be death duties. If her partner had been a man, she wouldn’t have to pay the tax.
So now the case has ended up at the United States Supreme Court.
I’m not a lawyer and I’ve no idea what would happen in the UK.
But surely in this age, we should clear everything up to make it all clear to everybody.
Odd Links In My Family Tree
With all the fuss about gay marriage, it is worth noting who you could marry was different in the past.
One of my ancestors in about 1850 was the progeny of one pair of marriages, where two brothers married two sisters. I’m not sure who, but one of the brothers and one of the sisters, who weren’t married to each other, died, leaving the two surviving parents with several children. They obviously lived together, as the union produced some more brothers and sisters.
But the law at the time, said that marriage was not allowed.
Today, in this rare situation, there would be no problem if the two parents wanted to marry, as the law has changed.
I think that the current position is sensible, but I doubt there have been many cases, where someone has married their sibling’s widow.
Leviticus incidentally has a view.
If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is impurity. He has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.
That certainly didn’t occur in my ancestor’s case, as there were at least two more children. Genetically, of course, they shared a lot of genes, but they would have been no more inbred than the original children.
There is also the case of two of my mother’s brothers, who married first cousins.
Now that still happens! Although for genetic reasons, I don’t think it is a good idea. It would also be impossible for me, as I have no female first cousins and only ever had one. There is a good discussion on Wikipedia.
Last night, there was a very heated debate on gay marriage on BBC Radio 5. So for those who say it is against the Bible, I say that for reasons of common human decency, the law can and should be changed, just as it was to help those like my Victorian ancestors.
I’m very much with David Cameron’s view, that everybody has the right to a long, happy and fulfilling marriage. I certainly enjoyed my marriage for nearly forty years until my wife died.
Widowhood is not the best of circumstances.
The Times On Jimmy Wales
The Times drops its serious front today with a third leader about the marriage of Wikipedia’s founder; Jimmy Wales, in the style of the on-line encyclopaedia.
A Good Reason For All Types Of Marriage
I did a trawl of the Internet and found this article about William Farr in the New York Times.
He was one of the founders of medical statistics and to quote his Wikipedia bio.
In 1858, he performed a study on the correlation of health and marriage condition, and found that health decreases from the married to the unmarried to the widowed.
The only problem with the study is that it was done 154 years ago. But if he got his statistics right, I suspect his results still hold.
I’m surprised that no-one has invoked William Farr in the argument on gay marriage. After all, the longer we live healthy lives can only be to the good of everybody in the population.
Are Those Opposed To Gay Marriage Bigots?
Nick Clegg has got into hot water over the draft of his speech saying those opposed to gay marriage are bigots.
I must admit, that the only people I’ve ever heard, who are against gay marriage, and there haven’t been many, have been opposed to homosexuality as well.
I get a lot of evangelicals knocking at my door trying to convert me and I asked one, what their views on gay people was. They were told politely to Foxtrot Oscar, after I heard their views.
The other thing that annoys them, is when I say my God is female. But it has the right effect and they move on.
Divorce Is A Bereavement
This glib and totally fatuous statement was made by Charlotte Friedman of the Divorce Support Group on BBC Breakfast this morning.
As someone, who lost his wife of forty years and 37-year-old son to cancer in the space of two years, she ought to try widowhood at sixty for a few days.
My wife was a family barrister and I can see her in my mind, laughing at the lady. Probably along, with some of her former colleagues, who have sadly passed away in the last few years.
Scotland To Bring In Same-Sex Marriage
I know it has been on the cards for some time, but it would appear that Alex Salmond has taken the plunge today in outlining his legislation for the coming year.
If Cameron doesn’t do what he wants to and legalise same-sex marriage in the UK, it would look like Gretna Green marriages will be making a comeback.
Storm Over A Sperm Donation
This article in the Daily Mail reminds me of one of C’s cases.
She was doing the divorce of a rather nice man, whose ex-wife was an absolute meadow-lady. A meadow-lady was a term from my mother-in-law, which should be self-explanatory.
The ex-wife was ranting and raving about what happened to her ex-husband’s redundancy. So she asked her client and he said that he’d spent it on a reverse-vasectomy. He’d originally had the operation on his wife’s orders, as she didn’t want any kids.
His new wife, who like her husband was rather sensible was now pregnant and in court, you’d have needed a chain saw to cut the atmosphere.
It was certainly a story that C repeated many times.
What Right Has This Man To Condemn Gay Marriage?
Cardinal O’Brien is getting all Catholic churches in Scotland to read out an anti-gay marriage letter. He must be going very near the anti-discrimination legislation, so he might find that he gets interviewed by the boys in blue. And I don’t mean Rangers supporters.
In a way, it’s all rather sad, as he is effectively saying that we don’t want certain types of people in the Catholic church. To some religion is important. Not me I hasten to add. But it has caused so much trouble in this world and still does.
In my view, churchmen and other religious leaders should stay out of areas like race and sexuality. And probably politics and football too, except as voters and supporters! Except of course, when they are trying to calm a difficult situation. Here he’s pouring petrol on the fire!
I would also say, that can anybody who has never been married, make a sensible statement, about the joy that relationship can bring.
The Anonymous Widower 