I really, really hate smokers

[Nikolai]

Nikolai, am I right to assume Norway's partnership laws didn't quite offer up equality to 'real' marriages' regarding the church? In that case, it's hardly equality we're talking about, is it?

No, the church could have allowed a blessing for use in partnerships, but it didn't want to, based on the word of God, which any true church is forced to take into account. There was forces inside the Church of Norway that wanted such a change though. But now the church is under much larger pressure to change the church law. But let's make one thing clear: It is no ones right to get the blessings of the church. To marry or go into partnerships, that is something else, but if you want to get the blessings of the church, you should have to respect that church's moral teachings.

Ben Kenobi, do you understand the implication of Norway's church being a state church? Nobody's arguing that some random church shouldn't be setting its own standards for what it does. But a state church discriminating is the state itself discriminating, just like it would be discriminating if the Norwegian police force began to have different solutions for gays than straights.

Actually, it's not that simple. We have this little thing called freedom of religion. But that argument is just the reason I hope the state and the church go separate ways as soon as possible.

[Monk]

Actually, it's not that simple. We have this little thing called freedom of religion.

I'd think you also had this little thing called not discriminating if you want to be funded by the state. I'd be surprised if the official Norway directly funds any other organization that openly declares there are different rules for gays than straights. Happy to learn you wouldn't mind seeing the concept go though.

Edit: Oh, and just for the record - Denmark suffers basically from the same dilemma, of course. While legal partnerships have been recognised for longer than in any other country, and a same-sex blessing is an option, it's not the word for marriage that occurs in the books.

[Nikolai]

I'd think you also had this little thing called not discriminating if you want to be funded by the state. I'd be surprised if the official Norway directly funds any other organization that openly declares there are different rules for gays than straights. Happy to learn you wouldn't mind seeing the concept go though.

Well. Prepare yourself for a surprise then. But there are forces who wants that to change. Oddly enough, the same forces think we should require the same from other religions. Officially, it's because we have to respect other cultures and so on. Personally, I wonder why that doesn't apply to Christianity. And frankly, to me it smells of a new kind of white man's burden.

[Ben Kenobi]

Divorcing or inheriting can be difficult enough as it is today, it shouldn't be difficult to figure out how it would be even worse if you could be married to several people who might have other partners themselves etc.

I wouldn't mind removing the automatic presumption of inheritance. Get a will, is all I can say.

It's not technically, but realistically impossible to implement. Unless you disassociate the concept of marriage from the government altogether, which is an interesting thought.

I have no issues with that either, and I think it would be greatly beneficial.

Eh... you can't do that? Then I'm asking along with you, because it sounds absolutely ridiculous that you can't do that.

Nope you can't. You have to prove that the relationship is sexual.

[Monk]

I wouldn't mind removing the automatic presumption of inheritance. Get a will, is all I can say.

Sure, but you're not getting around that some people won't do that, or that there are numerous other issues regarding polygamy that won't in any way correspond to a marriage between two guys. If you're devastated in an accident, it's quite an advantage that one person clearly gets to decide whether or not the doctor should pull the plug, that's just one example.

Nope you can't. You have to prove that the relationship is sexual.

That's absolutely bizarre the way it comes across to me, so you might have chosen a quite bad example, if you don't mind me saying