For the record as a Bible-thumping Christian (see "fundy moron"
):
My problem with these laws is not pertaining to gay marriages per se. My problem is the government regulating spirituality. Marriage can be seen in two ways:
legislatively and
spiritually. Legislatively involves the paperwork, taxes, property, visitations, etc and spiritually involves the LOVE. That's LOVE and LOVE alone with a capital L-O-V-E. There are many religions and lifestyles and the way that our society is heading spiritually every person or little group of people are practically becoming a "religion" unto themselves. The point is that, in my view, this government has ZERO right to dictate the definition of a spiritual marriage. I don't believe that the government is in any place to discriminate between the people to whom it provides services such as issuing marriage contracts for tax/property/visitation/et al. It's the United States government and is not the Vatican, not the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, and (despite what many people claim) not the Sanhedrin. What is our government supposed to be? It is a public service paid for by the public and operating at the whim and will of the public. They should probably recognize that people are NOT going to stop being gay and stop discriminating against people based on the fact that America used to consider itself a Christian nation.
The government is not a religious organization and they should stop pretending to be. If a couple is married then who has any right to say otherwise. I myself can say
"They are not married under God's eyes as I personally see it as a Christian"... sure thing. That is my right to say that but my compassion for people is not based on their religion or their sexual preference. We all have to live on the same planet for the time being and there is no reason to believe that suddenly people are going to start changing. Now if they want to start forcing Christian churches to marry gay couples in their churches.. that's another story. There are plenty of Wiccan priests and Unitarian churches around to perform the ceremonies. Why/how is this any different than a marriage in a mosque or a synagogue? The government recognizes those marriages, no problem. They will have a marriage between a Buddhist and a Jew in a courthouse, no problem. It is total hypocrisy for politicians to try claiming the moral high ground under the facade of being a "Christian government" when it comes to same-sex couples simply because it's an easy target (so colorful
) when they have no trouble legally recognizing any other non-Christian marriages.