Marriage – a new word needed
By: John Bispala 01/01/2013
Isn’t it time now to look for a new word for the embattled “marriage?” Everybody wants it regardless of our religion, sexual orientation or lack thereof. It seems reasonable for each subgroup of culture, philosophy or faith to invent a new term more suitable to their liking and abandon the word “marriage” to the politicians and definers of state law. This past November 6 election and campaign buildup obviously demonstrates that the state has a vital interest in marriage. Why not let them just have it?
Inventing a new term for such a vital relationship as “marriage” is nothing new. For example, in the very first century of Christianity, politicians and the whole world were engrossed in a form of love signified in Greek dialects by “eros” or “phileo.” The first of these is the root for modern words like “erotic.” The latter is the root for “philander.”
Early Christians found something more suitable for their newfound view of love, “agape” in another Greek dialect. Agape love was taken over by these Christians to describe how they experienced God’s love toward them as individuals and as a whole, and how each of them should relate to others. Thus, the earliest Christians created something, though borrowed from some Greek community, and contributed the same to the rest of human discourse until this very day 21 centuries later!
If a new word or words for marriage were found or devised in the many subgroups, whether sacramental or secular, they could set up their own criteria and parameters for it, leaving the state to define marriage now, and redefine it as time goes on, in the best and fairest interest of its citizens as a whole.
John Bispala,
Webber-Camden