{"id":22,"date":"2015-05-26T01:52:01","date_gmt":"2015-05-26T01:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zeppmusic.com\/Wordpress\/?p=22"},"modified":"2015-10-17T17:03:51","modified_gmt":"2015-10-17T17:03:51","slug":"three-cheers-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeppmusic.com\/Wordpress\/2015\/05\/26\/three-cheers-ireland\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Cheers, Ireland!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jesus&Mo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I did threaten to post non-music stuff regarding my personal thinking, so I’ll share the following thoughts on Ireland’s decision to recognize same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy any government is in the marrying business is beyond me…..\u201d<\/p>\n

This comment \u00a0(on a banjo forum, of all places) puzzled me. And so I post herewith my response, edited but slightly from what I posted there.<\/p>\n

It seems to me that the explanation to the poster of this statement is quite apparent: States recognize marriage because it is the state that must deal with the legal issues that accompany marriage: \u00a0Property ownership, divorce, taxes, inheritance, parental rights, cohabitation, etc. are some of those issues.<\/p>\n

When a church takes on the role of enforcing such laws, one has a theocracy, and for most of us in the US, that is anathema, as we comprise so many different religious beliefs. \u00a0Any single religion\u2019s laws would be totally irrelevant and thus unjust to many people.<\/p>\n

There are, of course, religious institutions that recognize various states of \u201choly matrimony,\u201d but couples can be, and often are (my wife and me, for example) married without involving religion whatsoever. \u00a0Thus, if a club or a church decides to pronounce a couple as \u201cmarried,\u201d it falls to the state to decide what this means vis-\u00e0-vis its laws. \u00a0The institution that \u201cmarried\u201d the couple (or group) has absolutely no say in those legal aspects, and can figuratively wash its hands of the matter if it so wishes. \u00a0By definition, it is only<\/i> the state\u2019s recognition that determines if a couple is \u201clegally married.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right now, in my State of residence, North Carolina, any \u201cordained minister\u201d can perform a legal marriage ceremony. Some years ago, my wife joined the Church of the Latter Day Dude and is ordained as a \u201cPriestess.\u201d \u00a0She has performed marriages in NC, marriages which remain fully accepted as legal. \u00a0Later, I joined an organization called GodSwill Ministries and am ordained in that \u201cchurch.\u201d \u00a0I, too, can legally perform marriages in NC (though I have not yet done so, I am available, of course!).<\/p>\n

Throughout civilization, a couple\u2019s pledge to each other–frequently in the presence of friends and family–has been \u201cmarriage\u201d enough for all romantic and moral purposes. \u00a0Only with the advent of organized churches was this somehow assimilated into their purview.<\/p>\n

What the majority in Ireland has decided is legally to recognize marriages of same-sex couples and grant them the same legal consideration as any other married people. \u00a0Who else should we wish to have such legal say?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I did threaten to post non-music stuff regarding my personal thinking, so I’ll share the following thoughts on Ireland’s decision to recognize same-sex marriage. \u201cWhy any government is in the marrying business is beyond me…..\u201d This comment \u00a0(on a banjo forum, of all places) puzzled me. And so I post herewith my response, edited but … Continue reading Three Cheers, Ireland!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeppmusic.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeppmusic.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeppmusic.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeppmusic.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeppmusic.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/zeppmusic.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82,"href":"https:\/\/zeppmusic.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions\/82"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeppmusic.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeppmusic.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeppmusic.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}