How can two men, or two women, make a lifelong commitment to each other?
How can a man and a woman make a lifelong commitment to each other? One way is to make a public covenant with each other, before God, and in front of their friends and family. The relationship is often strengthened by this public covenant, and the friends and family support both parties in the relationship, through the good times and the bad. Tradition calls this sort of covenant “marriage”. A same-sex couple can make a public covenant with each other, before God, and in front of their friends and family. The relationship is often strengthened by this covenant, although all too often friends and family do not support both parties and the relationship the way they would for an opposite-sex couple. Tradition has no name for this sort of covenant, but that does not make it less important or less real to the couple involved. Many people believe that examples of this sort of covenant are found in Ruth and 1 Samuel.
