One Hand, One Heart, part two

In West Side Story Tony & Maria get married in the dress shop with only each other as the ministers of the sacrament. It is in fact theologically sound for the bride & groom to do so. Priests, ministers and such are mere witnesses who provide a public blessing. The Catholic Church has done so many songs and dances around the institution of marriage but its dogma remains that the true ministers of the sacrament are the bride and groom. The beauty of Tony & Maria's marriage as celebrated in "One Hand, One Heart" is that it is forbidden love and that they go forward all the same.

Yet again the ruling party in the United States is making noises about an amendment to the Constitution defining marriage as only being valid between a male and a female which would in effect ban homosexual marriage. It is often referred to as a gay marriage ban.

Perhaps some should remind the powers that be that if two people want to get married, they will anyway. It can be done publicly or privately -- people of every stripe have been doing it for years without government interference. People have been doing it even with government interference.

It is silly to make arbitrary laws trying to regulate personal lives that will be expressed no matter what the Government as God says or enacts.

What the government ought to do is recognize a couple's, a family's rights as a tax entity. If the Federal Government wants to function as a Church then it has to sanctify all relationships that present themselves at their altar.

Better to ban all marriage than to turn a small segment of the population into a campaign issue. All couples should be legalized via civil unions. Let the Churches do the marrying.




A nation can become more religious rendering unto God that which is God's and rendering unto people their own day to day lives and a tax break or two for their households and dependents.