We're getting into the area where American law and Canadian law differ substantially. There are benefits to a legal marriage in Canada, but far fewer than you've cited because the laws surrounding common-law status were changed in 1979 and several times since then, granting long-term common-law couples most of the same rights as married couples.
Also, I'm in full support of legal marriages for homosexual couples, and church marriages where the church is willing. But if my dad is right, and there are people out there just waiting to sue a church into bankruptcy for refusing to uphold this particular law, what is going to be gained here? I'm arguing against those who are going to try to create a schism in the name of promoting change. If a schism happens without being pushed, fine. That's life, and hopefully both sides can go their separate ways fairly peacefully. But if it happens because it was forced, as is happening right now in the Episcopalian/Anglican church, that's a different story. There's a lot of vitriol and not a lot of Christian charity going on there, and the poison of that will far outlive the debate itself. It brings us all down when it does.
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Date: 2005-01-09 10:00 pm (UTC)Also, I'm in full support of legal marriages for homosexual couples, and church marriages where the church is willing. But if my dad is right, and there are people out there just waiting to sue a church into bankruptcy for refusing to uphold this particular law, what is going to be gained here? I'm arguing against those who are going to try to create a schism in the name of promoting change. If a schism happens without being pushed, fine. That's life, and hopefully both sides can go their separate ways fairly peacefully. But if it happens because it was forced, as is happening right now in the Episcopalian/Anglican church, that's a different story. There's a lot of vitriol and not a lot of Christian charity going on there, and the poison of that will far outlive the debate itself. It brings us all down when it does.