Same Sex Marriage (May have been done a hundred times already)

Paragraph 8 in the section “God’s Loving Design”

While the entire paragraph is relevant to Cultural Studies, there is one statement in particular which is extremely controversial and important in culture currently.

“…husband and wife, through that mutual gift of themselves, which is specific and exclusive to them alone, develop that union of two persons in which they perfect one another, cooperating with God in the generation and rearing of new lives.”

The section simply states that marriage should remain between a man and a woman and the argument laid forth is that it is the “natural” way of the world; God intended marriage to be between a man and a woman for that is the only way to procreate.

There are many flaws within the statement and the paragraph as a whole. Both the paragraph and the overall argument are based in the idea that God and Jesus are real and that God’s will is “natural law.” The main conflict between the argument and Cultural Studies is that we agree with the Gang of Four in that “We take the idea that there's no such thing as a 'natural fact' seriously.” Thus, we must view God, Christianity, Atheism, and all other religions as social constructs rather than any of them being “natural” or correct.

Once we determine that God’s will cannot be “natural” fact we must consider the ramifications of denying same-sex or non-traditional sex marriage. The chief issue that arises in American culture is that marriage is that our country is founded on a separation of church and state; however, same sex marriage is illegal in most states within America, despite the fact that legal marriage has nothing to do with Church. While America theoretically has separation of church and state, most of our government has always been Christian and every president we have ever had was a Christian; this religious “control” of government has created a culture which, as a whole, tends to be more homophobic (or at least less accepting of same-sex marriage.) This social construct has caused a blatant infringement on the rights of Americans laid out in the constitution, more specifically in the first amendment in the Bill of Rights.

While the amendment states that Americans have freedom of religion, they should also have a freedom from religion. There is an element of hypocrisy in that a Christian’s or Muslim’s or Jew’s rights are not infringed upon if two homosexuals get married, homosexual’s rights can be infringed by religious texts. While historically America has been run by white Christian males, it has become time to move past prejudice based in millennia of discrimination.