3 of 3

As long as we're redefining marriage …
Can someone who supports last week's Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court majority opinion on gay marriage make a case on why Carroll Ferdinandsen, must be jailed for his incestuous "marriage" with his 30-year-old daughter?

Last May, the Mobile Register reports, the couple were married in Mobile County Probate Court and arrested in July on incest charges." In December, a Mobile County Circuit judge voided the marriage, and last month Circuit Judge John Lockett released them with orders that they maintain separate residences. But when the Ferdinandsens were caught at a motel last Tuesday, mere weeks after their release from jail, they were arrested and charged with violating the terms of their probation.

So where are the screams about the government invading the bedroom? The Mobile Register reports, "Incestuous relationships are banned in all states because of concerns about child abuse and genetic mutations." Indeed, the former seems to be a particular concern here, where the couple also served time for abusing their pets.

But the Massachusetts high court has specifically dismissed concerns about child-rearing, saying they don't trump "the dignity and equality of all individuals."

"While it is certainly true that many, perhaps most, married couples have children together (assisted or unassisted), it is the exclusive and permanent commitment of the marriage partners to one another, not the begetting of children, that is the sine qua non of civil marriage," the court said in its November decision.

So if defining marriage as between a man and a woman is "invidious discrimination" (as the Massachusetts court said Wednesday), and if one cannot justify it on the basis of what's healthy for children nor on the basis of whether "the governing majority in a State has traditionally viewed a particular practice as immoral," (the judgment of the U.S. Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas), then why can't the Ferdinandsens marry? Why the "prejudice" against G. Lee Cook and other polygamists?

Why was it, again, that Rick Santorum got slammed for drawing these kinds of comparisons?

Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Suggest links and stories by sending e-mail to weblog@christianitytoday.com

What is Weblog?

Check out Books & Culture's weblog, Content & Context.

See our past Weblog updates:

February 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2

January 30 | 29 | 28 | 27 | 26

January 23 | 22 | 21 | 20 | 19

January 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12

January 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5

January 2 | December 31 | 30 | 29

December 26 | 23 | 22

and more, back to November 1999

first page |  3 of 3

share this page

February (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48