E
Elizabeth502
Guest
Eve, I want to thank you – and some of the other good posters here, too – for your contributions to this level of civil discourse. It is only in this dispassionate approach to a passionate issue that legally logical (including Constitutional) rights (and non-rights) can be understood, and legitimate opportunities applied. You bring up some important points, and at the moment I cannot say that I have an argument against them.I see nothing wrong with having the mother, in a homosexual situation, being the sole parent legally. To say that her “partner” is the other parent is demonstrably untrue, since her “partner” could not conceive with her. This would go for homosexual adoption as well. There is no reason why the state should recognize homosexuals as having legal standing in matters aside of mutual concern. If two people wish to consent to a contract which binds them legally, this is fine. But it is not in the state’s power to assign a minor third party to this situation, since this is clearly not in the child’s interest, and the state cannot make it so.
I see no reason why the court should not recognize a legal contract . The presumption in my assertion is that since marriage licenses have been abolished, the contracts which replace them legally will also replace them in the eyes of the court. If a man and woman have a marriage contract of their own creation which binds them, this couple would be the parents on a birth certificate. The fact that marriage licenses no longer exist would not make them any less married. The only time this would not apply is with homosexuals, which, while bound to each other contract-wise, cannot be made into parents, since this can never be done, statist attempts to the contrary not withstanding. The state cannot make what never was. The recognition of some legal benefits by the state does not automatically equate others. For example, one may be legally permitted to work here, but not be able to vote.
While it is true the Church gives records of the sacrament itself, it does not define in those records what the benefits associated with marriage are. The state does that with licenses. I am suggesting a legal contract written by the Church to define the benefits and duties of the enjoined state from the Catholic perspective, instead of a prefab secular license.
I hope this helps make things somewhat clearer, since it is so complex an issue.
You have also provided a possible framework for separate roles of civil and religious, which limits neither. For there to be a permanent and non-mutually-offensive common ground on this issue, these kinds of neutral and mutual understandings must take place.