Kurt Armstrong
Kurt Armstrong works in Adult Spiritual Formation at St. Margaret's Anglican in Winnipeg. He is also a handyman, an editor at Geez magazine, and the author of Why Love Will Always Be a Poor Investment (Wipf & Stock).
Bio last updated September 30th, 2021.
Articles by Kurt Armstrong
Till Death do us Consume
By Kurt Armstrong
October 1, 2013
The narcotic effects of a market society are to blame for North Americans preparing funeral rights for marriage, argues Winnipeg writer Kurt Armstrong
What bothers me so much about "wanting" as the criteria for staying is not that this romantic idea runs about as smoothly as a train wreck, or that it shatters people's hearts, or that it undermines the communities where these relationships find their context and meaning, or that it champions the fleeting sensations of "falling in love" over things like commitment and responsibility, or that it fosters sexual obsession, or even that it treats children as accidental, burdensome and mostly unfortunate consequences of romantic, satisfying sex, although all of these things are true So in those rare moments when your love of food, fashion and life partner are aligned and functioning smoothly within the intoxicating haze of romance, it all feels pretty rosy; but when the bottom falls out and the doe-eyed bliss turns into bleary-eyed boredom—and I don't care how heartbreakingly romantic your story of falling love is, at some point, you will find that you are bored with your lover—all of the holdouts for romance are forced to ditch the hard edges of reality for a Hollywood-style romantic-comedy-fantasy with consequences that are benign and forgivable if you're 15, but utterly catastrophic when you're 35 Last year, radio host Jian Ghomeshi ran a series called "Modern Love," on CBC Radio's Q, where panelists discussed our evolving ideas about monogamy, arranged marriage, sex addiction and infidelity, and one of the conversations centred around the question: Is marriage obsolete? Author Iris Krasnow argued that marriage was relevant because most people are still drawn to the stability of a lifelong relationship, while Russell Smith, a columnist at the Globe and Mail, argued that marriage is, in fact, obsolete Tell the truth about love and you dispel the silly, adolescent fantasies inspired by Taylor Swift or Cameron Crowe or perfume and diamond ring advertisements, and defy the narrative of a supposedly secular culture that would rather have us all bow at the altar of the god of Mammon than worship at the throne of the Creator What reasonable, calculable promise can you offer the grieving lover? The promise to love "till death do us part" is the wide-eyed commitment to love another in the face of inevitable grief and loss; and to make good on that vow puts you in direct opposition with what consumer culture says you deserve