Marriage
Main Entry: mar·riage
Pronunciation: 'mar-ij
Function: noun
1 : the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a legal, consensual, and contractual relationship recognized and sanctioned by and dissolvable only by law -see also DIVORCE
2 : the ceremony containing certain legal formalities by which a marriage relationship is created
There was a more technical deffinition at Dictionary.com but I picked this one for a reason. For one thing it kind of offended me that the deffinition was saturated in personal values. Part of the reason i dislike deram dictionaries is that symbols in dreams are personal and have unique meanings. For example, if two people dream about water and one grew up in New England and another grew up in Florida they will have different views. Taken to the extreme if they dreams of knives and one's dream is to become a chef and the other's parents were murdered and stabbed to death, then their emotional connection and very deffinition of knife would be different. For person one it is a tool to creat culinary masterpieces. for person two it is an insidious tool used to end human life. So here is where I begin to dissect this deffinition.
"...to a person of the opposite sex..." This phrase in itself is a hotbed for contraversy. It is an impetus for an entire movement in this country that desires the legal rights of another. My view is simply this: In this country's Constitution, in the section called the Bill or Rights, one is given freedom from religious sanctions and persecution commonly called "freedom of religion." Bearing this in mind, there are religions who mandate same sex unions to be a travesty against God and nature. On the other end there are religions that mandate same sex unions to be hallowed and natural. This debate certainly has been around since the dawn of time. However, in my opinion, from a strictly Constitutional stand point, it is unlawful and illegal for the American government to pass laws strictly on a personal religious viewpoint. Should there be statistics contrary to allowing said union, other than it just being a minority, then I am afraid I am morally and legally opposed to government involvement in religious affairs.
"...a legal, consensual, and contractual relationship..." Here is a really interesting piece. According to this anything that is neither legal, consensual or contractual is a marriage. To flip my coin a little bit there are religions who mandate marrying one's cousin is not only moral but in some cases God mandated. Yet it would not be a marriage unless it was legal in the country to do so. The same goes for homosexual, polygamous, or heterospecial (see Woman marries a Dolphin) unions just to name a few. Another interesting point is the contractual piece. In the military we have a term "contract marriage" in which a service member legally weds someone simply for the benefits the militray gives married couples with an agreement of certain gains for both members to include money, base privleges, sex, etc. By this line of thinking and this deffinition marriage is sanitized of any emotional attachment into strictly a business deal. And finally the consensual part is just false because there have obviousally been cases where a legal union then termed a marriage was formed without any consent of the individual either through coercion or arrangement.
"...recognized and sanctioned by and dissolvable only by law." Again here is where we assert the Government is responsible for your marriage not you. Unless they recognize and sanction it it is not a marriage. Furthermore, they can likewise dissolve it at leasure through their legal process. I find a people who embody this view of marriage to be dangerous. They are the people who say, "If the Marine Corps wanted me to have a wife they'd issue me one."
The last deffinition still unsettles me with it's mandate of legal formalities and that marriage cannot exist prior to said formalities. But this one of the modern and accepted deffinitions of marriage, cleansed and sanitized for the benefit of the powerful elite.