Same goes for same sex marriages, if it is against Church doctrine, they would not be “forced” to marry them. Nobody is saying Churchs should be forced to do anything.

The exact quote from above is “I don’t think it [a same-sex union] should be called marriage, but I think that it is a legal right that they should have that is recognized by the state,”

“by the state” are the operative words here…nothing about forcing Churchs to do anything, just allowing recgonition by the state.

Child custody, property rights, inheritance rights, insurance/pension suvivorship rights are all affected by marriage. Domestic Relations Law governs these areas.

You cant say to one set of people, sorry, these laws dont apply to you because there is a vocal religious group out there that think your actions arent sanctioned by their ‘god.’

If you are a Christian and follow what Christ taught in the Bible you would not perform or accept a marriage between anyone but a Man and Woman.

But, as a Christian you are told to love and accept people for who they are. Government does not belong in the marriage business, there fore they should not force a Christian Church to perform a marriage that they do not believe follows the Laws and words in Christs teaching just as the government should not force Christian health care to supply birth control pills and perform abortions.

My personal belief is that the government shouldn’t marry anyone and give everyone the same civil union rights. Then if they are religious they can go to a tax free church and get married in the eyes of God.

What his point was, if you read between the lines, is that even if you are a full blown Christian, judging gays for being gay is as much of a sin as being gay. That if you are Christian you shouldn’t be discriminating against a lot of people because they are different than you.

Seems pretty clear to me. So I ask my original question to Russ, what is you stance on this particular issue? Just curious.