On 27/10/2006, at 9:33 PM, jdiebremse wrote:
--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], Charlie Bell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
An interesting idea - but I somehow think that abolishing legal
marriage
isn't going to be a wildly popular idea....
Well, it's a good job that's not what I said. I said separate the
legal and religious portions.
How does that differ from the current situation?
Make the legal agreement that allows
for joint ownership, automatic powers-of-attorney, visiting rights,
protection of children just that - a legal contract. You can sign it
at the end of a church wedding, or in a hall, or in a lawyer's
office. Just a contract. Civil unions for any two people who wish to
organise their affairs that way.
Of course, one wonders why only two?
Indeed. Why only two?
In any case I don't see how this
proposal is different from creating civil unions for same-sex couples
If you want a wedding you can have
it, but it won't automatically confer the legal rights. That way,
any
religious ceremony or none at all can be held, which has meaning to
the couple.
Again, I don't see how this differs from the current state of affairs.
In the US, atheists have no difficulty in getting married in the
secular
ceremony of their choice. Do weddings automatically confer legal
rights in the UK? Are religious ceremonies required in the UK?
Until very recently it had to be in a registry office, if it wasn't
in a church. But again, you have to have a "wedding".
Churches can protect their marriage in the eyes of the
Lord by offering weddings to heterosexual couples and not anyone else
if they choose. Marriage will mean exactly what it always has, which
is exactly what the two married people think it means to them and no
more.
Australia has gone part of the way - marriage no longer automatically
confers a name change for a female partner. Not far enough though.
All of this also seems true in the US as well.....
So what on earth is your problem with the ruling, as you seem to
agree with it.
Charlie
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