Seriously. :-)

The only thing I have lamented is the use of the same noun to describe two different relationships. My great friend of the last 35 years also strongly encouraged me to change my position on that topic, but even he, in the end, agreed that a homosexual relationship and a heterosexual relationship are not the same relationship. I then asked him why he wanted to use the same noun to describe the two distinct relationships and he said, in essence, that if we didn't, some people would see one as inferior to the other (Aside: he's known me personally long enough to know that I was not in this imagined group). I still think it's stupid to use the same noun for two different things but that in no way should be taken to mean that I believe that homosexual relationships should have any lessened rights and/or privileges vis-a-vis marriage.

We've been through how marriage has changed over the centuries before, so I won't belabor the point, but I do want to push-back again.

For instance - http://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/5809/how-are-concubines-different-than-wives

In Genesis, a union between man and woman is described as just a commitment that two people make to live together, help each other, "be fruitful and multiply." Isaac brought Rebecca "into his tent," and she became his wife, so in their case, marriage is initiated between a couple when they engage in sex. Afterwards, they are understood as being bound to each other, and thus living in a marriage. This is understandable, since biblical times had a very different view of sex than what we see in modern society.

This is why I ask about the difference between what a wife is and what a concubine is in biblical times. Since a marriage ceremony is never described in the Bible, what qualities would make a concubine different than a wife?

Those are two different labels, so is it just suggesting a social status difference? A handmaid, even if she took up permanent residence with one man, would never be a "wife", only a "concubine"?

Bilhah and Zilphah are described as Jacob's "concubines", and Rachel and Leah are described as "wives", although the children from all four women are equal since they all become the twelve tribes. So why not call Rachel and Leah's handmaids wives?

That's just one example.

Treating the word "marriage" as some inviolable term that 'everybody knows' and has a universally-agreed meaning is where you go off the rails. Either everybody's marriage, whether they were 18 and school sweethearts, or 75 and met at Atlantic City on a wild weekend, or have 19 kids, or are sterile (voluntarily or not), or marry once, or marry 6 times (sequentially, not concurrenly ;-), they all need to be treated equally. Otherwise, it creates "separate but equal" and nothing in that type of arrangement is ever equal.

"Equal but" is not Equal.

Societies change. Words change. That's a good, but sometimes annoying, thing. Because "Stasis = Death".

My $0.02.

Cheers,
Scott.