As the Washington National Cathedral, host to the funerals of many presidents and leaders, begins to host gay wedding, using a new liturgy approved for blessing same-sex unions, the Episcopalian Dean of the Cathedral hopes this is a “teachable moment” for replacing the traditional liturgy with the new genderless version:
The “heterosexual marriage [ritual] still has some vestiges of patriarchy, with woman being property. There’s hope in same-sex marriage that it is a teachable moment for heterosexual couples. The new rite is grounded in baptism and radical equality of all people before God,” said David Hall, . “I’d like to use it for heterosexual weddings because I think it’s so much better than our marriage services.”
No, thank you. The traditional liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church is just fine as it stands. Same sex people wishing to have their perceived rights honored or accepted deserve a separate ceremony and liturgy for that event.
Ummm…doesn’t he have a point that, “heterosexual marriage [ritual] still has some vestiges of patriarchy, with woman being property”?
I mean, aren’t you for the re-instatement of patriarchy to cement marriages? It is really the key for marriage stability, from historical experience. The countries with the highest divorce rates have the most gender-equality in marriages (Nothern Europe and North America north of the Rio Grande), while societies with the greatest subordination of women in marriages have the lowest divorce rates.
Divorce rates skyrocketed as women became liberated in the OECD, via law and the technology of birth control, in the 1960s. Similarily, making this technology illegal and formalizing in law and custom partriarchy should lower divorce rates substantially, a la non-OECD countries…
It is my understanding that historically, with the advent of agriculture, marriage in most agricultural socieites was patriarchical. Gay marriage is kinda a minor issue compared to the issues laid-out above. I doubt gay marriage is going to increase the divorce rate by 100%; the elimination of patriarchy and bc did so across continents…
I am trying to understand your arguments overall; if I am being uncivil above please let me know…
Frank