A Dishonest Definition of Marriage

Rick Warren and other gay-hating professional Christians constantly run their mouths about marriage being defined as a union of one man and one woman throughout the last 5,000 years of human history. This, of course is a lie, but the main stream media NEVER calls these windbags on the issue (or any of the other often told lies that is the Christianists' stock in trade). As a fellow commenter on Pam's House Blend points out, the one man -one woman form of marriage is of relatively recent origin and in fact is not the norm in large parts of the world even today. Here is a summary of some of the real structure of marriage from the Bible and from history:

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It seems that there are so many people in the gay community who are aware of the dishonesty of this claim of universal, historical, monogamous, different gender marriage in all places and times. We all know it's simply not true. Why doesn't the wider community know this? It's time we attacked that lie head on. We need to come up with a short list of examples to expose this lie. Something that can be a soundbite, and carry the message wherever we hear the lie. I would suggest the following inclusions:

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Jesus was single.

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Mary and Joseph didn't have the traditional marriage either, since Mary was a virgin mother and Joseph wasn't Jesus father.

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Abraham had many wives.

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Joseph Smith had dozens of wives.

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David had six hundred wives and three hundred concubines.

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St. Paul said it's better to be celibate than married.

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Cultures that accepted gay marriages included the Greeks, Romans, Chinese, Japanese, Native American, etc.

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As usual, the Christianists have lied. The truth is the opposite of their claim. In almost all places and times, until very recently, gay marriages were accepted. It wasn't until Christianity took hold of governments and cultures, that their own particular brand of homophobia became the norm.

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A recent case out of Saudia Arabia where multiple wives is often the norm - and where women are treated as chattel - underscores the truth of these statements and that "marriage" is often not as the Christianists define it. As CNN reports, a Saudi judge recently refused to annul a marriage between an 8-year-old girl and a 47-year-old man. Here are more highlights on this sick situation about which the Christianists say nothing:

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According to the lawyer, the girl's father arranged the marriage in order to settle his debts with the man, who is "a close friend" of his. The judge did ask for a pledge from the husband, who was in court, not to consummate the marriage until the girl reaches puberty, according to al-Jutaili.

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The judge ruled that when the girl reaches puberty, she will have the right to request a divorce by filing a petition with the court, the lawyer said. Christoph Wilcke, a Saudi Arabia researcher for Human Rights Watch, said his organization has heard many other cases of child marriages. "We've been hearing about these types of cases once every four or five months because the Saudi public is now able to express this kind of anger, especially so when girls are traded off to older men," Wilcke said.