So, here's my issue: this person I know from high school was a total charmer. He had the looks, a great personality and incredible talent. Along the way he fell into a spiral of dangerous substances and we lost touch before high school ever ended, and I remember thinking through the years that it was too bad he made such poor choices, because he had so much potential. Then he popped up on Facebook a few years ago and I discovered that he had gotten married and his wife was having a baby. Maybe things were looking up. But no, that marriage fell apart and now he's moved on to another woman, one who also has children. None of his personal choices have anything to do with my issue, though. I told you that to tell you this:
I am so frustrated by the fact that some people can use and abuse the idea and practice of marriage while others cannot even plan a wedding. I'm disappointed that couples who are committed to each other cannot make that commitment public and legal in front of loved ones because of who they love. I'm incensed that the same people who proclaim love and grace and forgiveness also proclaim sin, death and condemnation. Yet, any straight person can get married over and over and over inside of a church and in the eyes of the law but my gay friends cannot. My gay friends cannot get married and enjoy the benefits of being a committed couple (legally) but people who have abused and misused the privilege of this commitment can, even the ones who were unfaithful to their previous spouse and left grief, anger and despair (sometimes in the form of children) in the wake of their destruction. I'm appalled that somewhere in what I'm laying out there's the potential for a thread of "logic" from the opposition.
I'm not talking about someone who was the victim of infidelity marrying again, nor am I talking about anyone who lost a spouse. My issue is with people who marry and divorce and marry again (and again and again) without any regard for the seriousness of the commitment they are making. We live in a temporal world..."this will work for now" is more of our mentality than "this will work, period." I didn't make a promise to my husband that I would be by his side until I got bored, or met someone new, or built a better second life for myself or the myriad of other reasons marriages fall apart. No, I promised my husband all of me for all of my life, forever. He promised me the same. Should he be unfaithful to me (not that I can even fathom it) then eventually I should be able to move on and marry again if I see fit. In my mind, though, despite its legality he has abused the sanctity of marriage in a way that gay couples cannot, primarily because they can't get married to start with, but beyond that because he has taken the promises that we made for granted, broken them and expects to make them again to someone else regardless of what he has done before. Some churches call that grace, when asked for in the correct context. I can't see it. Maybe it's because I have my own issues with marriage and religion (separately and together), or maybe it's because I just can't wrap my head around the idea that some people can have more and more while others get nothing. Where is our sense of balance?
If you have a license to drive, and you are continually destructive, break the rules and/or cause harm to others, you lose your privilege to drive. Why would we treat that more seriously than the destruction of our hearts? If they are truly ours to give, and the government shouldn't tell us what to believe or how to practice, then why should they tell us who we can commit ourselves to for life? And to think, all of this from a Facebook post...
