To answer both you and Joe, and, please note, I am not making a religious arguement, but a political, constitutional one:
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Marriage existed before governments (please pardon, this is not a religious arguement). When governments came about, the government did not “Marry”, but only recorded the marriage for purposes of inhearitence, etc. Government also saw the benefit of marriage (not for religious reasons, but for the welfare of the women and children) and gave married people (i.e., those who recorded their marriage with the government) certain benefits over those who were not married because of the benefit. Please note: NO ONE, in these times, even considered homosexual marriage as even laughably to be considered.
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The U.S., and many countries that are have a democratic government, have laws allowing religious freedom. Our constitution puts the freedom of religion very high up, first of all the rights.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances".
So, the federal government, which derives ALL of its LIMITED authority from the constitution, shall make NO law that establishes a STATE religion (like in England, at the time), or prohibiting the FREE exercise or one’s religion. NOTE: Please understand the context. At that time, there were not, really, as exercised in the US, any real religion other than the various sects of Christianity. But over the years, this has been expanded to Jews, Muslims, etc (and, apparently, even Atheists :mrgreen:).
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In Canada, The Neatherlands, Sweden and all the European countries, where homosexual marriage has been for about 10 or so years, the governments have passed laws (mainly, the courts “interpreting” the laws. Sound familiar.) that prohibit the religious teaching (in CHURCHES) of ANYTHING that smacks of “discriminitory” or “hate speech” against homosexuality. (BTW: ALL the world’s major religions, in their scriptural texts, teach that the ACT of homosexuality is a sin and that there is no such thing as “homosexual marriage”).
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In California, homosexual activists are protesting, rioting, sending death threats, mailing “powdery substances” (can you say “terrorits tactics”) to the Mormon Churches. This is because these “lovely, tolerant people” have lead their followers (and fellow travelers) to believe that the Mormon Church lead the campaign for Prop 8. The facts are that the Mormon Church did not do so, even though some members of the Church did contribute (as private citizens) to the campaign.
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ALL major religions and many secular groups and their members contributed to the Prop 8 campaign, BUT the Mormons are the easiest to slam, scandalize and put down.
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If government (which has never done so, only activist judges) passes laws allowing homosexual marriage, the next step will be to condemn any religious teaching (in churches, as has already happened, includng the jailing of priests, pastors, Rabbis and even Mullahs in Canada and other countries) that says that homosexuality is a sin.
Please Note: This is a violation of the first amendment. Regardless of your religion, or lack there of, you have to seen that the simple preaching of the Gospel (or the Torah, or the Qu’ran, etc) will be outlawed as “hate speech”.
If you believe this is hyperbole, just research what has already occured.
NOTE: The above was NOT the preaching of any religious manner, just stating facts with regards to various religions.
Have I been clear?