quote:
Originally posted by Danny:
I think a large part of what this argument boils down to is whether or not marriage is a solely Christian institution.

And yes it is, if you're talking about a church wedding with a priest and rice throwing and bibles and such.

But then there's simply weddings as a union by the state, which is practiced by many non-Christian heterosexual couples. The latter is what the gay marriage advocates are pushing for. Does the church have a monopoly on that? Can the bible dictate which couples the government is allowed to say 'yes, you are married, with the legal privileges and responsibilities that entails'? I don't think so.

If the bible is truly against homosexuality (I haven't done the research some of you have, so I can't say definitively... it's obviously a touchy subject), and the church takes it's instructions straight from the bible... then okay, maybe gays can't have a church wedding. As much as the homophobia inherent in that sickens me, and as weird as I find it that people take their orders from a two thousand year old book, we can't force people to change their rituals or beliefs.
But from what I've read and people I've spoken to, a church wedding's not what they want. It's just the piece of paper, the legal recognition. Which, at least in my frame of reference, constitutes a perfectly good 'marriage'.
Exactly.