Dear Josephus,

In modern, industrialised societies it is generally
assumed that marriage is founded on romantic love
between the partners and that the choice of a mate
should be left to the individual. But this concept
of romantic love is entirely unknown in many
societies and is considered laughable or tragic in many
others. In most traditional societies, marriage is
regarded as a practical economic arrangement, or a
matter of family alliances, not a love match.

Throughout history, in fact, alliances between entire
societies have been sealed by marrying a person of one
royal family to a person of another.

In the past century, for example Ibn Saud a local
Arabian chieftain married over 300 women of various tribes
binding these groups into the country now called Saudi Arabia.

In many traditional societies, therefore marriage is
negotiated by the parents of the partners often with little
or no consideration of their children's wishes. If love
is a feature of these marriages at all, it is expected to be
a result and not a cause of the union.

The economic aspect of these marriages is especially
apparent in those societies in which an intending partner must
pay a price to his prospective father-in-law. This
practice is especially widespread in sub-Saharan Africa, where
nearly all the tribes expect to exchange cattle for the
marriage.

This was a meme about 35 years ago
3% of the population are gay but how much time and effort are people using to justify this ?
Reality time We have a declining birth rate in Australia is this going to fix this problem ? NO
Live your Life how you want but don't keep trying to force your life choices on everyone else
The gay's have done a brilliant job of brain washing people that this is exceptionable behavior, Good on you how to manipulate the system in only a few years.
Let's get back to more traditional ideas about Families because it is the ONLY thing that will save us in the end

Dear Rehctub,

<<What happens if a church chooses not to marry them>>

One possible outcome is martyrdom, with prisons filling up with defiant clergy, or as no space is left there, them being fed to the lions at the zoo.

More likely, churches will officially stop marrying anyone and heterosexual marriage rites would go underground and be performed secretly in private homes (so use blue-tack on all your camera eyes).

The gay-marriage community would still do their utmost to detect illegal religious marriages and inform the authorities - they would for example look for couples who go on a honeymoon and encourage the government to check their phone-call records to see whether they were in contact with a priest just before.

Religious people will no longer register for legal marriage and thus be considered "de facto", so this would likely prompt the gay-marriage people to ban de-facto relationships or extra-marital sex. However, since the urge is unbeatable, we would end up like Iran with temporary-marriages (Official: "how long would this marriage be?"; Couple: "4 hours, Sir"; Official: "that would be $25, thank you").

The interesting question, though, is what happens if churches DID choose to marry homosexuals - the last thing these gay-marriage people enjoy is to burst into open doors thus having nowhere to vent their puerile anger!

Yuyutsu, "we would end up like Iran with temporary-marriages (Official: "how long would this marriage be?"; Couple: "4 hours, Sir"; Official: "that would be $25, thank you")"

Or to look at it another way, a lesbian would go on her second date with the U-Haul trailer of her personal kit AND her wedding dress.

Meanwhile in the ACT, the bullying, hysterical Twits of Twitterti that are the usual informants of public opinion according to the news-making media and 'fact-finding(LOL) ABC, have declared that a married couple to be 'HOMOPHOBIC' because they intend to divorce if SSM is introduced.

<Nick Jensen threatens to divorce in protest of gay marriage in Canberra CityNews article

A CANBERRA couple has announced their intention to divorce if gay people are allowed to get married too.
Nick Jensen, who posed with his wife Sarah on the cover of the latest issue of Canberra CityNews, writes of the Christian couple’s decision to end their marriage under the headline, “Gay law change may force us to divorce”.
“My wife and I just celebrated our 10-year anniversary. But later this year, we may be getting a divorce,” he writes.
“The decision to divorce is not one we’ve taken lightly. And certainly, it’s not one that many will readily understand. And that’s because it’s not a traditional divorce.”
Mr Jensen goes on to explain the divorce plan, where the pair will continue to live together, have more kids, and refer to each other as husband and wife, but will legally end their marriage because they believe “marriage is not a human invention”.>
http://tinyurl.com/or4ocgj

A much-needed diversion for the Labor Opposition from the tedious subject of 'strugglers'.

"Former Labor leader Mark Latham slams Labor over gay marriage

FORMER Labor leader Mark Latham has slammed his party’s “obsession” with gay marriage saying it should focus on the nation’s “Struggle Streets” instead.

He said the biggest social issue facing Austalia was unemployment, drug use and homelessness in suburbs such as Mt Druitt which was the focus of the SBS documentary, Struggle Street...
“They’re obsessed, instead, by gay marriage.”>
http://tinyurl.com/p6kts6c

Oh boy BUTCH you've opened up another issue in order to propagate a very brisk discussion !

Personally if Gays wish to marry, let them !
If Gays wish to have children, and they're biologically capable, let them !

I can't understand how much more any government can bend, in order to further accommodate their (Gays) particular sexual proclivities !

Next there'll be a move by some very weird people, to legalise sexual relations with animals ? Do I hear any of you good people laugh ? Well, there's always been in existence, long standing legislation with a clear prohibition of such an abominable act, still that hasn't stopped some who choose such a lifestyle ? I could even name a few, but obviously I'm gagged.

Well, that's the Slippery Slope fallacy checked off. Now, if we could just have the Appeal to Nature ...

Obviously my joke one doesn't count.