Trying this again. That is the Christian viewpoint. The United States allows and supports a number of religions not all of which follow the New/Old Testament.
If you are going to define marriage in a religious viewpoint, how do you correlate it with Non Judeo/Christian religions(in no particular order): Hindu, Zora, Shinto, Buddist, Jainism, Pagan, Wiccan, Rastafarianism? My point being that what we have here in terms of "marriage" is a muddled religious/legal concept. If two (or more) people want to commit to each other and take on specific legal rights and responsibilities I say more power to them. The world needs more commitment to each other not less. However, religious beliefs should have nothing to do with: Social Security Pensions, Veteran's pensions, survivor benefits, copyright issues, parenting rights, joint tax filing.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_and_responsibilities_of_marriages_in_the _United_States#Rights_and_benefits There should not be any legal impediment for those rights and responsibilities. However, if your religious ceremony is simply religious and does not infer any of those benefits (nor can they be taken away from anyone), then heck the church can refuse to hold religious ceremonies for whoever they want. -----Original Message----- I tried really hard not to get "preachy" in this reply. In the Old Testament, there are several direct references: Leviticus 18:22 - "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination." Leviticus 20:13 - "If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them." Full item at: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/thread.cfm/threadid:28439#2 80618 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:280707 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
