Wayne Dynes offers an insightful analysis of the five major jurisdictions -- four nations and one U.S. state -- that have legalized gay marriage.
The five he examines are Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, and Massachusetts. He excludes the Scandinavian countries because what they have is closer to the civil unions that exist in Vermont rather than actual marriage.
Professor Dynes wonders what commonalities these seemingly disparate jurisdictions share. He finds these:
(1) All five border the sea and have a maritime heritage, which suggests a great deal of interaction with the outside world.
(2) All five are quite affluent, with high per capita incomes.
(3) They all have low birth rates and long life expectancy.
(4) All five are predominantly Catholic or have unusually high Catholic populations.
He expands on each of these four points and offers further questions for exploration -- well worth a look.
im a catholic, and im sorry to say, i got a little offended cuz gay and catholic dont exaclty go together...so u might want to change that to just "gay" ...or just "catholic" but not both together...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.freeiPods.com/?r=20793496
Rick is Catholic and Gay, and in him the two are reconciled. You can take offense to this fact if you want, "Wil," but your objections won't make it any less true. I suggest that your time would be better spent if you quit pestering fellow Christians and learned to spell.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I'm not sure Canada qualifies as a maritime nation. It has a coastline, true, but not much in the way of seafaring trade. And as I recall, a few of the leading provinces for SSM in Canada were landlocked.