Marriage is between man, woman

Friday, March 12, 2010

To the Editor:

The very people who love to rap the gavel during legislative sessions and tell people they cannot bring up the Bible to argue for their viewpoint are always right there with their own misconceptions of the Bible, picking conveniently what to refer to, while leaving out other sections. The Bible is meant to be a holistic book and you cannot interpret it correctly by randomly picking this or that passage. The writer is supporting a position that the definition of marriage was changeable in the Bible, conveniently ignoring the 2,000 years since Christ of consistently defining it as monogamous relationship between one man and one woman. He also fails to underscore that all his examples are also between a man and a woman or women.

In the early ages of human history, the fact that marriages occurred between brother and sister at times is obvious, “In the earlier history of the human race there was a tendency in a family group to keep marriages of its members within the group … The Mosaic Law, however, introduced important modifications into the arrangements of marriage or carnal intercourse between near relations by blood as also by affinity; these modifications were founded mainly upon the sharpened instincts of human nature and the importance of guarding against the dangers of corruption from the intimacy of very near relations …” http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Consanguinity_(in_Canon_Law)

Hence we have a precedent being set even in this early time that the form of marriage needs to be protected from corruption, as well as the need to define it as being between a man and a woman. The writer refers to forms of marriage such as the polygamous practices and adultery in the Old Testament, (Solomon, David). Obviously a full reading of the Bible would clarify that Solomon, David and many precursors of Christ are recognized as having fallen short in terms of their representation of the perfect bridegroom. This imperfection in David, (adultery with Bathsheba) led to the composition of the beautiful Psalm 51:1-3 “Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy. And according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquity. 2 Wash me yet more from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my iniquity, and my sin is always before me. …”

His lament is hardly a prayer upholding his fault and defining it as an ideal for others to follow. As for Abraham’s “fling,” the fruit is still being painfully lived out as a long-standing rivalry between the Jewish people and the Moslems. The lesson is consistent with protecting the traditional, monogamous definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman.

MARY ZORE

Brookline