Bullseye Series, Part Four

A running feature of this blog is the Bullseye Series, wherein I post insightful quotes or observations from other places around the Web. In this case, it's a reader's comment to this morning's news story that Iowa Republicans have introduced a bill in their state legislature to amend the Iowa state constitution and overturn the (solidly Republican) Iowa Supreme Court's unanimous decision that that constitution must allow marriage equality:

"What seems often in play is that people are afraid that at some level children will be taught that being homosexual isn't a bad thing. The push-back on that appears to be that people don't want to face their children in the future and have to explain why they want to tell others who they can call their spouse and why. Claiming it will hurt families is perhaps because they fear it will hurt their ability to control the ideals of the people in their own family, that their own sense of morality will come down to only their own opinion. I think there are some out there that can't stand that idea, rather they need to feel they are supported by something bigger and preferably well-armed. In short, they are fearful."

And another reader's comment in the same thread about the purpose of this whole exercise and which encapsulates the mainstream Mormon approach very nicely:

"Too many people reduce marriage to sex, which is really only a conservative religious concept. Conservative religions define marriage as the ecclesiastical permission to have sex. All the other aspects of marriage--joining finances, supporting one another, working toward common goals, can be undertaken even by religious people without having to have the blessing of marriage. Although the church claims that marriage is much more than sex, the only thing the conservative church seems to be worried about is granting permission to have sex. If on Friday, the unmarried couple has sex, the church frowns. After the Saturday wedding, the church celebrates when they have sex. This is an unfortunate dumbing down of a truly wonderful institution. Gays don't want to get married so they can have sex. They're doing it just fine without marriage. Gays want to get married because of the true meaning of marriage: Loving someone more than yourself, committing to that person for life, and desiring the benefits of governmental protections that provide children a stable home environment and a secure future for each of the spouses."