On Tue, Jul 12, 2005 at 03:45:33PM -0600, Dan Stovall wrote: > > civic pressure in 1978, and it is currently fighting against gay and > > lesbian rights today. > > I assume you are referring to the gay marriage debate. As far as I > know, on other gay rights issues, such as hate crime legislation and > a gay bill of rights, the church has made no statements. In the > case of gay marriage the church has a vested interest in the debate. > From what I have read, as a political body the church doesn't want > to be forced by the government into a position of conflict with > itself. If gay marriage became legal it is conceivable, and has > been proposed in some states, that the government could only allow > people to have a marriage license that would perform gay > marriages. This would be a way to try and force the church to allow > homosexuals to marry in the temple.
Right, and then before we know it, the church will be constrained by the state to marry rednecks with their dogs across the temple altar. Seriously, this is about as ``slippery slope'' as one could get and is purely alarmist; it assumes an imposition of additional governmental interference. I am advocating just the opposite. My proposal is to remove the state from the equation as much as possible. The state does not define what a ``Quorum of the Twelve'' or a ``Stake Presidency'' is; it should likewise not endeavor to define what a ``Marriage'' is. The term ``Marriage'' should hold no more place in the public law books than ``Bishopric'' should. An equitable and Constitutionally secular state will have the terms ``civil union'' or ``clergy person'' instead. > Of course, the church would never allow gay marriage in the temple > so the sealers would lose the legal power to perform marriages. Each person's own religious institution should ordain ``marriages'' according to its own terms; the state should have little to do with it. As it now stands, it actively interferes with several religious institutions' definitions of sacred unions between two consenting adults. It is a violation civil rights that needs to stop. Mike .___________________________________________________________________. "Long sermons are unnecessary among idol-worshipers." - Joseph Campbell
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