NAAM DAY 12: Texas Lawmaker: Unconsumated Marriage is a Family Value

What in the world is happenin’ in the Texas legislature? Not about adoption… exactly.

Today was the first day our esteemed lawmakers could pre-file bills for next session. Since we do things big in Texas, more than a thousand bills made it into the hopper. For a state that prides itself in”small government” (ha!) they sure do want to control us.

Rep. Cody Vasut, R-Angleton filed 2 bills to trap people in miserable marriages.

House Bill 931, allows for loved-by-evangelicals covenant marriage to be enacted in Texas. This means that both couples have to agree to the divorce, but before it is granted are required to take at least 5 hours of counseling from clergy or a licensed mental health professional. Well, there’s more to it than that, but that’s the basic deal, and I’ll let it go for tonight.

Translated, it means enforceable forced marriage if one party refuses to comply. An abuser can continue to abuse on “religious grounds.” Proponents say that covenant marriage fosters “family values” but don’t define what that means. Of course, we know. Patriarchy.

Covenant marriage bills have been introduced before but didn’t move. This time around, seeing as the country is now ruled by sociopaths, Christian nationalists, incompetent illiterates, and assorted nuts who would have lived in a padded cell 20 years ago, this could be the first volley to rescind no-fault divorce and other divorce restrictions in the state. The current bill makes covenant marriage voluntary, but the way things are going how long would it be if it were mandatory? Let’s hope that once again it fails to get out of its bed. As one poster on Twitter said, “It will never pass. Just look who sits in the legislature.” I’d add to that august body the imminent figure of moral rectitude, Ken Paxton. How is married life goin’? Ken.

Not content with forced marriage by covenant, Vasut also filed, House Bill 732, aka forced marriage by impotence. The bill would repeal a section of the Texas family code that allows for marriages to be annulled because of impotence.

The bill is very short and gives no reason why the current law should be repealed, and I’ve found no statement from Vasut to explain. If I were a snark I’d say. something now. I should drop him a line. I don’t feel like asking this kind of question over the phone to his legislative aide or to Vansut himself.

This bill makes no sense. Failure to consummate a marriage would, in the arger context, invalidate the marriage covenant.

Sex, by church teaching, and seemingly by secular law, IS part of the marriage covenant, and an annulment makes the marriage invalid. If a couple marries and the other partner cannot consummate the marriage and deliver the goods, then the marriage is invalid, Period. But not apparently by Vasut’s standards. Once you say “I Do” you do’d forever, even if you can’t get down or up as the case may be.

I know Vasut is a Baptist. (He plays drums in a Christian praise band), but I am pretty sure that Baptists, except for serial molesters and other deviants, hold the “rules” of Christian marriage.That is, the purpose of marriage is procreation.

This is from the Catholic Herald, and I am pretty sure Baptists believe in the “sacred bond of marriage” through conjugal love, too, especially since they are so het up about unfettered procreation:

A man or woman who suffers impotence, either physically or psychologically, cannot enter into marriage because he or she cannot physically consummate the marriage. According to the Code of Canon Law, antecedent and perpetual impotence at the time of marriage invalidates the marriage (No. 1984.1). In sum, a person who is impotent cannot enter into marriage validly. Quite simply, a marriage must be consummated. (Note that impotence that occurs after the consummation does not impact upon the validity of the marriage; for example, if a husband suffers prostrate cancer later in life and undergoes surgery or treatment which renders him impotent, the marriage still retains its validity.)

Is Vasut a heretic?

Of course, a couple bound by law in forced non-consumated marriages, (we aren’t talking about shack-ups or same-sex marriages,for heaven’ sake!) might want children, even if trapped. Now, under Vasut’s plan a new stream of adoption consumers opens up. I can only imagine the advertising.

I really want to know what Vasut is up to. It sure looks like he wants people to stay married no matter what. Forced marriage inedded! I don’t think this bill will go anywhere. If I still lived in Leander and could get to Austin easily, I”‘d loe to attend its hearings if it gets any.