current RANT as of the winter of 2008
When you look to the stars, you are likely to trip on a stone. Seeking the divine in the world can make you a candidate for the psychiatrist's couch.
The
Layman's Guide to
MARRIAGE
I can not keep silent about this topic any longer. Marriage is a spiritual union - no more and no less. It is blessed by the church when it is witnessed by the spouses to exist. The spirit comes first, then the material, then the eternal. A person is spirit first from the first cause known as " I AM ". They are expressed in the material of the body, of either gender. The material world imposes a cultural gender on the person which they may accept or reject. The legal world imposes ordinances which may be accepted or rejected and are changeable.
The union of the whole and part is essential to all existence whether material, spiritual or eternal. An imbalance in this union set existence into motion and will continue until the end of time. TO BRING SOMETHING INTO EXISTENCE, A UNION OF WHOLE AND PART MUST TAKE PLACE. All that exists is directed to either the whole or the part as a result of the motion of existence. This is expressed in the physical gender of a person but can be overcome by determined free will.
The church, a spiritual institution, in the material world, seeking the eternal, blesses the union of whole and part as identified by and alive in Christ and the church. The spiritual union of whole and part found in the marriage of a man and a woman is a great spiritual resource. It influences all that encounter it, whether society, persons, or the world. It is this union that the church wishes to honour, protect and nurture in the sacrament of marriage.
Marriage as a legal institution is a contract between two parties uniting resources, assets and investments, whether people, places or things. It is not concerned with anything spiritual although at times it is concerned with emotional hangups. For the good of society the family unit can be argued to necessarily be a balance whole and part. This would encourage marriage between a man and a women. However, many marriages are nothing but tools in an endeavor while many gay and lesbian marriages are spiritual unions of whole and part. As a legal institution I see no reason to allow marriage to be used as a material tool while being denied to true spiritual unions of whole and part. I would like to see the church restrict the sacrament of marriage to verified undeniable spiritual unions by testing the witness of the spouses, and disregarding any legal union that may follow.
A true spiritual union of one man and one woman will one day exist between a man and a woman, at the end of time when a perfect balance of whole and part comes into existence. Marriage is a vocation serving Christ. Marriage is not a perpetuation of the imperfect balance found in procreation and the inflation of the population. Children are the hope of tomorrow and acknowledgment of the failings of today.
The church is only trying to use material purposes, procreation, to justify a spiritual union between man and woman, part and whole, in a material, legal, world. I am disappointed by this argument although I agree with the conclusion. There is little more fundamental than gender and therefore a fundamental spiritual union of whole and part can only be between a man and a woman, ALTHOUGH ONLY TO THE EXTENT THAT PHYSICAL GENDER IS FUNDAMENTAL. The eternal soul, if it has not gender, can find spiritual union anywhere - in fraternity, sorority, nature, endeavor, procreation.
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