Not sure if this is the right place to post this question. (If it's not, then Elaine, feel free to move it. )

I attended a heterosexual wedding today. During the ceremony, conducted by a Baptist minister, when he got to the part about joining "one man and one woman", I got to thinking. Wondering, really. What does history tell us about marriage and such anyway. To be blunt, if homosexuality is ok with God, then where are the "same sex" wedding ceremonies (call them what you will, unions, committments, etc.) in history?

I am certainly no history expert, and I know even less about the history of "marriage" or its equivalent in world history. I have heard that homosexuality has existed since practically the beginning of man. But, I haven't heard anything about such relationships being kind of officially recognized.

Anybody else wonder about this...or perhaps even have some answers?

searcher2003

Searcher, this is a great topic!

I don't have any concrete answers but I have heard that the Catholic Church performed same-sex marriages up until the their numbers started to decline. Once the protestant church began building in numbers, the Catholic Church abolished any marriage that would not allow for the birth of children.

I also understand that such marriages would have documents at the Vatican but those documents have been sealed.

I'd like to know if this is truth or folklore and I'd like to know more, too!

Carol

I would suggest that both of you read the "Letter to Louise" article in the "Gay and Christian - Yes" section. The author, a Baptist minister, covers quite a bit of the history of marriage and same-sex unions. Very good article.
Ingrid

Good question. According to the experts (not me!) same-sex marriages were common in many of the civilized countries (e.g. Greece, Rome). They say such unions were blessed by the early church. The reference for these would be Boswell and , Graff and others. I believe the section of Bruce's series that covers this subject is titled "The Homosexual's Place".

Speaking of gay marriage I just received an interesting book from Scott Redmond that addresses some of these issues. I'm writing a review and synthesing many of his thoughts for an upcoming article (with his permission). Very interesting stuff.

This is a cool subject. I am all ears.


Jae