I was writing about the founding fathers and not being catholic so I don't know what the law says "men and woman" must have just been what they thought of at the time. I don't know much about Calvinistic. either way it got deleted. Anyway, lets talk about separation of church and state. Lets just be very clear that religion
should have no hold on marriage in the eyes of the government. That means religions don't need to condone marriage for our government's sake. Which is a huge point in all of this.
For some reason churches have so much power. You guys are missing the point completely. Churches now-days don't "mind" homosexual people. They just don't think its proper to get married because it's a sin. In the bible it says man and woman get married, no one else. That's the churches whole deal.
That's not the only reason that homosexuals want to get married. Don't be so blind and naive. If you want to be with someone of the same sex there's no one stopping you. The only thing marriage does right now is
entitle you to legal rights.
So now that we have made it clear. Marriage should be called "domestic partnership" in legal terms. The term "marriage" should only be used by the churches for their little game that they play wherein "god told me not to judge people but I do anyway."
But here's the real reason people want gay marriage.
Lets start with thinking about what normal marriage consists of:
- Man + Woman (Usually in love)
- Children (If they want them, this doesn't matter for marriage seriously. There are so many unwed mothers. So many orphans. Who cares if they want children or not.)
- Tax breaks (Yes! File your taxes jointly and receive special perks!)
- Family (You get to see your family in the hospital, you get to make decisions about what happens when one becomes dangerously ill.)
- Insurance (Ah! Lovely insurance. How nice that you cover the spouse!)
Are you starting to understand it better now? It's got nothing to do with religion. The homosexual people I know have never once told me they hated religion, only their silly beliefs. Religion does many good things (I would know - I was raised Catholic), but stopping same-sex couples from certain benefits they should be entitled to through the government is just stupid. Most of the time same-sex couples are no different than heterosexual couples, unless they have children but that's a whole different topic.
This does bring us to divorce. We all know that same-sex couples sometimes can't stay together very long. So be it. You should take a gander at heterosexual couples divorce rate though. You'll be shocked. Something about people getting married too early for all the wrong reasons.
I'm already starting to get tired of writing this and will finish up with explaining the same things as normal marriage above but with a "domestic partnership":
- Man + Man or Woman + Woman (Usually in love, but who cares so long as they stay together.)
- Children (A whole different topic not going into here. Some heterosexual couples choose not to have kids. Oh well, not a big deal.)
- Tax breaks (You know, I've seen some interesting things lately I don't know... you might actually be able to file jointly with a same-sex person now.)
- Family (Most homosexual couples are limited in this area. Because they aren't considered "family" because the government has not considered them married, they lose certain privileges when one of them becomes very ill. It's kinda sad really.)
- Insurance (The best part! I'll explain this below.)
As far as insurance goes for same-sex couples. Something interesting that most of you might not know is that a lot of larger companies extend insurance to "domestic partnerships" which allow a same-sex couple the same kind of insurance incentives as a married couple. My mother's company does this and she's seen it before. I find it kind of cool, if you can give two people who are not the same sex insurance I don't see a reason why you can't give two same-sex insurance.
Of course there's probably some mistakes in this. I know some things might have changed. There might be something hidden under a rock somewhere. But this is what I've gathered from people who've been for or against gay marriage. Not pretending to be all-knowing but this is what I've seen and heard. It's completely different than just "religion doesn't want us to marry."
Never have I found a reason to introduce religion into the equation. I don't care what the bible says. I don't care. The government shouldn't care. This is called evolution. We're evolving. I've read parts of the bible. I find it interesting. People don't understand it's a guidebook. Not a set of solid rules. If you were a real religious person you'd understand that God made everyone. You shouldn't be judging others for things they can't control. It's how they were made. If you do, you yourself will be judged by God for doing so.