Hello conservative right wingers:

Why do you deny the happiness, that you yourself enjoy, from your fellow citizens? Isn't doing that UN Christianlike???? I think it IS!!!

You are bad and wrong for doing that. Tell my why you're not.

excon

Synnen

Again---the logical answer is this:

NO ONE can get "married" by the state. EVERYONE must get "civil unionized" in order for the state to recognize their relationship for legal purposes.

Once you are civil unionized, THEN you can go to your church and get "married". This way, every single church out there can ONLY marry who they think their god allows them to marry.

However, since all the legal aspects ONLY come from a civil union, everyone who was married in a church ONLY will either have to be grandfathered in, or have their marriage reaffirmed by a courthouse.

This would solve EVERY problem with the whole gay marriage issue. Church and state are separated, the church can't perform a LEGAL marriage, and the state can't perform a RELIGIOUS marriage.

There's no separate but equal about this--it's straight up equal.

So--MY question is this: Why are the really religious people against this: Is it because you're losing rights that you took for granted until someone pointed out that you were discriminating against homosexuality if you didn't allow them the same rights?

Or is the REAL problem the fact that you don't like that YOUR church wouldn't be the final say on whether or not someone could say they were "married"? I mean, really---if someone says they were married by the High Priest of the Cult of Nyarlathotep for their "marriage" after their civil unionization----who could say they couldn't CALL themselves married, since they got "married" in a church?

Doesn't it really just come down to that word--married? Isn't it really that you don't want gays to have the right, no matter HOW roundabout they got it, to use the word "married"?

Sounds kind of small minded, to me.

inthebox

Synnen:

I agree, and would have no problem with your proposal

michealb

Passmeby,

You might not be dumb but you are misinformed.

Even in nature many organisms don't reproduce. Take ant drones for example, they don't reproduce but they certainly have purpose they assist the queen making sure of her offspring are successful. Once animals group up evolution gets much more complicated, it is no longer as simple as the high school overview we all got of "Kill or be killed". It become more of how can I be valuable to the group.
However for us to try and gauge some ones usefulness on an evolutionary scale is pointless. For two main points.
1. The human population has reached a point of stagnation of evolution. Our population is so large and intermingled. We aren't evolving anytime soon.
2. We have no idea whats useful. Something that may appear to be useless my be a very important pillar we just don't know enough even about ourselves to know.

As far as I see this issue. You have two choices that are reasonable.

1. Get the government out of marriage. Make marriages a private function and allow the government to only make civil unions.

or

2. Allow gays to married.

Your the majority you better vote on one of the two otherwise you may get the one you don't like.

tomder55

Synn
I am glad to see many of the experts are agreeing with my initial posting #10.
Regarding the word marriage ;it is not a small minded thing if you understand the religious importance.For Christians marriage is a religious act a sacrament. All Christian sects have continued to regard it as religious. The fact that it is elevated to a sacrament illustrates the importance that Christians place on the institution of marriage. Althought there are provisions for annulment it is considered an insoluable bond between man and woman in most Christian churches.

yes it is best to separate the religious sacrament and civil contract.

Synnen

But then again....my question becomes this:

If the gay community can find a church that is willing to "marry" them (and believe me--they can find these churches. MANY pagan religions will recognize it, for sure), are the Christians going to throw a fit that they (the gay community) can call themselves married?

Because seriously---if that's the case--I'd like Christmas, Easter, and Halloween back to their original pagan meanings, and you Christians can go find other dates and traditions that DIDN"T come from the pagan religions--which are now completely ignored, much to the dismay of many pagans, because Christianity became more powerful and completely twisted the pagan traditions for their own ends.

Isn't that exactly how Christians are seeing it? That someone else is twisting their religious traditions for their own ends?

classyT

Synn,

I still see Easter, Christmas, and Halloween as pagan. So? I don't celebrate them that way but I see them that way, i understand how they came to be. Big deal. They are what they are..it is up to YOU how you want to celebrate them.

Look everyone is blaming the Christians voting down Gay marriage. It isn't just Christians, there a plenty of other people that don't like the idea. I will always vote with what the Bible has to say because I believe it to my core. You can't fault me for that..i have that right. And if more people are voting it down than get over it and stop blaming the Christians it ISN"T JUST CHRISTIANS. sorry but it ain't.

Synnen

Fair enough that it isn't JUST Christians.

However---the Christians are the loudest and most vocal about it.

My point is that marriage may have STARTED as a religious thing, but has moved past that. People still SEE it as a religious thing, but don't have to "celebrate" it as religious.

As you said---big deal. Marriage is what it is--it's up to the people IN the marriage how to "celebrate" and define the marriage.

tomder55

I can't speak for all Christians . My view of Christian churches that administer the sacrament of matrimony to gay couples is that they are violating Christian dogma.

The dates may coincide but the events celebrated by Christians on these holidays are not pagan at all..

NeedKarma

And it isn't ALL Christians either.

margog85

It just seems strange to me...
I agree that it appears the only solution to this would probably be to allow everyone civil marriage through the state and then religious marriage through their churches-- It seems to be something that both sides can agree on, at least in this discussion here. But at the same time, I feel like this isn't really doing anything except over complicating things.
For example...
If gay marriage were legal tomorrow, a gay couple couldn't just walk into ANY church and demand they be married. That was outlined in CA by the Supreme Court when the gay marriage ban was deemed unconstitutional... that no religion would be required to perform the marriages if it was against their religious beliefs. Just like churches who turn away couples from getting married if their divorce wasn't annulled, for example. So gays would either get married in their churches, where it was permitted by their religion, or go to a justice of the peace.
If we did this whole separation of civil unions done by the state and marriages done by the religion... then it just adds an extra step in for EVERYONE. Because gays could then go get civil unionized and then go to their church and get married. They'd STILL be married. It would still be the exact same thing... so why over complicate it?
From what I understand, when a couple gets married through their church, it's basically just combining all of these steps anyway- the couple is "married" in the eyes of the state for legal purposes by the same religious official who is blessing their marriage as a sacrament. The priest or minister or whoever is performing the ceremony is acting as both an agent of the state and a religious authority. They were given the ability to do both of these things to make the process simpler.
I don't know- maybe I'm not explaining myself clearly, I feel like I'm not (just woke up so forgive me!)- but it seems like we're creating extra processes unnecessarily all for the sake of a WORD that people want to hold onto. If gay people will still be able to get married in their own churches and still say that they are a married couple based on their religion... then why go this route? Why not just continue to call ALL couples married like we do now, regardless of whether they're married by a justice of the peace or through a church?
I mean...
...does it bother religious people if atheists get married by the justice of the peace and call their union "marriage"? To that couple, it's not a "sacrament" in any religious terms- it is a union which offers them #1 legal protection and #2 a way to publicly declare their love for one another.
For a lot of gay people, it's the same thing.
And for a lot of other gay people, if their church is willing to perform the ceremony and marry them, then why not?
I think that this proposed solution would probably work and be accepted by people... maybe. It's a big change, and might not be easy... But if a change of this type occurs and this ends up being the solution... I feel like we're just playing games at this point with words and processes to achieve the same end as we would be just simply saying "Yes, gay marriage is legal. If you can get married in your church, go for it. If they won't do it, you can't force them- just find someone else who will."
Doesn't it seem to complicate things unnecessarily??