Why can't we just create a clear and concrete line between civil and spiritual unions? If this is truly a battle to win the same rights as married couples for tax and insurance purposes, who cares if the partnership is sanctioned by a church? Let them go to some other place, like a bar painted like the mouth of hell, to be unified.
As Vandy pointed out, they can get married outside of the church. No church has to perform the ceremony. An additional point here is that no church can tell non-church members what they can or cannot do.
We've entered an age where everything is okay and there are no consequences for any action. Don't dare have an opinion that disagrees with anything or you're branded a bigot, a hater or something worse. I think that's a very bad trend. It's going to lead us to a cultural revolution that won't be positive. At some point the degradation of basic values will destroy this country from within. Don't think I'll live long enough to see it, but it's coming. My kids probably will. Because we're so loathe to express our values, so afraid to speak up or act on things we find offensive, the baser aspects will win out. We will eventually be overrun by outside forces who aren't afraid (Muslims perhaps) and everything will be lost. All the freedoms we cherish will be eliminated because we weren't strong enough stewards to protect and maintain them in balance.
You've mentioned this before, and you usually point to the Romans. I'm still not sold on how and why this is what will transpire. How will a country that leaves people alone in the privacy of their own bedrooms and a country that gives people the freedom to choose their own identities outside of the rule of an authoritarian inevitably fall apart?
When I think about the world as it was when I was born and look at it today I think you'd be hard pressed to find a more dramatic cultural and technological change than the one my generation has undergone.
When I was born everybody didn't have a telephone at home. Many people were on party lines. TV, if you had one, was three stations and they went off at midnight. I've seen segregated restaurants and theaters. I've seen separate water fountains. I didn't really experience true integration until I was almost out of elementary school. Calculators? They were called paper and brains back then. Computers? Science fiction. Cars came with AM radios. FM was just a fad. Digital music, CDs... that was crazy talk.
We're on an accelerated path. Things are changing too fast for people to handle. It's going to blow up on us.
Back in my day, we didn't have busses coming around to take us to school. We walked two miles in the snow, uphill both ways!
Back in my day, we didn't have these fancy auto-carriages. We just had horse carriages, the way they're supposed to be. You actually had to work on those, clean up those. Wash em down. Treat the horse like family. Now you just get in your plastic box and go. Too easy.
Back in my day, kids were happy to be a house negro! Now they all wanna be house negroes!
Back in my day, we used telegrams to send messages. This whole phone system is just a toy. Who needs to sit around talking for hours on end? Just send your message, read someone else's message, and be on with your life.
Back in my day, we didn't use a radio for music. You had a band actually PLAY the music. This isn't music. It's just some kind of fancy electricity magic. Why would anyone want to listen to that?