"Part of the problem is one of vocabulary: the word “marriage” has been dual-purposed to refer to both sacramental marriage as a religious practice, and civil marriage under our body of secular laws. Many religious conservatives fear that granting civil marriage rights to same-sex couples would somehow infringe on their rights to keep sacramental marriage in accordance with their beliefs. This is absolutely untrue. Our separation of church and state guarantees that the government cannot force a church to conduct same-sex marriages. Religious conservatives will be able to continue to restrict their sacramental marriages to whomever they feel qualifies. But conversely, religions cannot rightly restrict who can qualify for civil marriage, nor should they seek to do so, if they truly value our American way of life."
Absolutely. Why can't more people be this sensible?
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posted by Duamuteffe @ 1:07 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Religious conservative types tend not to be able to see beyond the ends of their noses, and they cannot be reasoned with; if they could do either, they would not be religious conservatives in the first place. So much time and effort is wasted on attempts at rational discourse with these fundamentally irrational people: in the end, such people can only be placed in check, and put to heel.
And usually, the separation of church and state does the trick for that- and I think it will do so for gay marriage given some time and more legislation. But it does confuse me why some people are so blind to the needs and wants of others. I mean, *I've* got a religion/belief system/etc, even if it isn't terribly mainstream, and so do many/most of my friends and family, and *we're* not going around trying to tell everyone what they can and can't do, so it puzzles me when others can't make the same decision. It may come down to the fundamental nature of the person in question; some people are just bloody-minded, and everything about their lives and beliefs will be that same category of bloody-mindedness.
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