......marriage, union, partnership

it's been a while since something annoyed me and i felt the need for a rant but this in the guardian today really needled me!

i would have no problem with the signs these people are holding if they said christian marriage = man and woman, because it does. (or maybe religious marriage). i can guarantee that the majority of these people waving their placards in protest, which is their absolute democratic right, are christians. how do i know? well it's not very scientific, but, as a 'recovering christian' myself i can spot them a mile off! tidy, neat, middle class, over 50.... and (the worrying bit) organised. this is why we need to watch this kind of thing. you know when you see a real protest because there are signs made from sellotaped together cornflakes boxes (bargain variety), or a section of the living room door they've secured (in some case from their own living room door!) ....but these people, organised ...dangerous ...god (sic.) forbid they might actually change someones opinion! you can see they've got money because they've all been able to print off their signs and use up seventeen ink cartridges to print that big red heart.

the closed eyes, the upturned hand, the narrow view of a broad concept ...christians.

marriage is a union. it's a partnership. i'm not 'married' in the sense that i don't have a certificate that says so. but i feel married. joined together through thick and thin. lots of those things in those christian marriage vows apply to the relationship i have. wikipedia says that it is a social union or a contract and points out that there are many forms of marriage polygyny, child marriages, and arranged marriages, all of which can be man and woman and all of which some faiths would have a problem with. we know that in some cultures people are forced into marriages. maybe people of faith (defined as the ability to accept something as fact without a shred of evidence - just saying!) should put their energies into exploring whether such 'marriages' are free from misuse (or dare i say abuse).

so given that marriage is a broad church (see what i did there ;-0) then maybe it's not so wrong for marriage to be about man and man or woman and woman. that doesn't offend me. that sounds fine. what does offend me is people peddling moral principles established 2000 years ago in a culture that doesn't have the remotest connection to mine. why do people want to control the private lives of other people? why can't we just be who we are and get on with it without trying to make other people like us. no gay or lesbian person i know parades in the streets waving placards stating everyone should convert from their heterosexual state because they are wrong to be like that! no! people who are gay or lesbian just get on with in the face of all of this ridiculous prejudice.

it needs to end.