TOD 10.04.07

I saw a bumper sticker today which made me chortle. It read, “Only you can protect your marriage. Vote no on the marriage amendment.” The reason I laughed was because it was such very well-phrased nonsense. The reason I stopped laughing was because I recognized it was meant seriously.

Now, obviously this sticker makes a false play on words when it talks about protecting “your” marriage. The problem with gay marriage is not that it threatens any particular marriage, but rather all of marriage as an institution which privileges permanent baby-making relationships. But the other error here is asserting that the success of marriage is entirely up to the people in it.

Marriage is not a purely private thing. The spouses are heavily responsible, but so, too, are the close friends and family for nurturing it as well as the larger society for providing a safe environment for it to grow in. So beware pithy phrases. They can easily deceive you into thinking that the ideas underneath the verbal gold plating are as pretty as they appear.