Ideally marriage should be an entirely religious institution. If it were then Church's could decide who they wanted to marry based on their own beliefs and conscience and we wouldn't be having any debate over who should and shouldn't be recognized by the government as married. However as a nation we have had to pass legislation that intrudes into families and marriages. Laws touching everything from marital assests to domestic violence are part of everyday life in modern America (and most of the world).
Marriage sits at a very strange crossroads of private life, social life, religious belief and government oversight.
However the actual definition of marriage has always been assumed it has never been formally and legally defined. The legal history of marriage in America covers a lot of ground. In the mid to late 1800's we had people who were persecuted, robbed, murdered and finally forced to leave the country over this issue because they included polygamy in their idea of marriage (whether they practiced it personally or not). From the end of the civil war into the 1970's you had massive resistance to and persecution of interacial marriages up to and including murder. There are many other more limited examples, usually as each new wave of immigrants came over they experienced reluctance to "allow" them to mix in one way or another that tended mostly to die out over a generation or two.
Now we have people of the same sex wanting to marry and despite what leftists want you to believe, the overt persecution of this group is very minimal. Yes there are idiots who are "gay bashers" but they are pariahs and criminals not part of the institution. You just don't see gays or gay couples being lynched by mobs while the authorities turn a blind eye and you certainly don't see them being forced out of the country in toto.
We are, collectively, the government. So this exercise of choosing how the government treats marriage is each of us as private citizens using our best judgement based on our beliefs (religious, social and otherwise) to determine the proper legal definition of this institution.
Marriage is not a legal contract even though there is usually that element to it. Marriage is not an agreement between two people to hang out for a while unless things get rough or she sees your skidmarks, altough the two people obviously have to have some agreement. Marriage is a covenant between a husband, a wife, and God. No amount of legal wrangling or social acceptance can change the fact that God has established marriage and has a place in each one. Without any one of those three that marriage is not going to last. And to start off by leaving God out of it is a mockery.
I don't want this to come across as antagonistic but I have to say what is true. I have no animosity toward gays in general. I feel fortunate to have oppurtunities where I have been able to get to know several people that were homosexual; in college, in the workplace and even socially. They are just like everyone else, some are smart, some aren't. Some are good coworkers and some aren't. Some are cool to hang out with, some you try to avoid. Most are fairly reasonable and try to be good people and at least one is a weasly dink you couldn't trust to tell you what the weather is while you are both standing outside. I could make those same statements about every other group of people I know. Except Tarheels, we are all perfect and wonderful and everyone looks up to us as the role models for life.
Bottom line is that marriage is special. It is a religious ordinance and should be exclusively a religious issue. If it was then each Church could decide how to deal with this issue with no outside interference. But we allowed the government to come in so the voice of the people must be heard.
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