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Overview of the Marriage Issue |
What we call marriage has different meaning to different people and different groups of people. Marriage laws and traditions vary from nation to nation and what marriage means differs from religion to religion. The way some religions define marriage and the way some governments define marriage is totally incompatible with the Church of Reality lifestyle which give individuals far more freedom to live their lives as they choose.
The marriage tradition reflects the evolution of life on earth and human evolution. As we all know we reproduce through human sexual reproduction and everyone one of us has a biological male father and a biological female mother. Science may one day change that but that is how we have and currently reproduce. Marriage has also been defined by other religions when the virgin marriage monogamy model has been promoted with a lifelong commitment and fornication and adultery are considered to be serious sins.
The human race has and continues to evolve and we have through science greatly extended our lives and greatly reduced the amount of effort we put out to just survive. Thus a lifetime commitment is a lot longer than it used to be. Infant mortality is down so women don't have to have many children hoping a few survive. Because of transportation and communication we are no longer limited to having relationships within the immediate local community. And because of our survival successes, excessive reproduction has become a threat to our continuing survival rather than a necessity. But without sexual reproduction humanity would become extinct.
The Church of Reality Sacred Principles includes the Principle of Inclusiveness. Every one of us is part of us. All of us are fully equal members of society and we do not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. In our religion, same sex relationship are not a sin. And it doesn't matter if people are born that way or if they choose to be that way. We believe in Self Ownership, where we make our own choices to write our own Life Story. Thus unless an activity is harmful to society as a whole, such as in forcible rape, forced sexual slavery, or sex with minors, we consider sexual orientation to be a lifestyle choice.
Although the Church of Reality supports multiple life styles by choice, the reality is that humanity also depends on reproduction to survive. Parenting children is an important issue and is related to, but not dependent upon, the issue of marriage. Sometimes heterosexuals pair off in lifelong bonds having children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren all in a close knit biological family. But more often than not, children are raised by single parent as a result of divorce, death, or pregnancy that resulted from a sexual encounter between people not in a committed relationship.
Many children are raised by adopted parents or communities of people who are not biologically related, but are as committed to a successful upbringing of the next generation. In the Church of Reality we consider the future to be our Sacred Direction. But "the future" we mean the Positive Evolution of the human race. Thus humanity has to reproduce responsibly and we have to raise our children as best we can.
Marriage is a complex issue involving long term commitment, trust, love, and pair bonding. It involves children and generational issues. It involves sex and sexual preferences. And it involves the law and social norms. Defining it in the context of the Church of Reality is challenging.
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