You keepo saying all of these things about Marriage as they relate to your religion.
Even if we assume that your god has decreed that homosexuals cannot marry, why should
I care? Why should your religious law affect me, a nonbeliever? Why should the law incorporate your religious beliefs?
It sounds like you want the Christian version of Sharia Law. If you agree that forcing Muslim religious law onto non-Muslims (or even Muslims who have different beliefs) is wrong, then you must also believe that forcing your brand of Christian law onto non-Christians (or Christians with different beliefs) is also wrong.
The COnstitution assures the freedom of religion and bars the establishment of a state religion...which includes Christianity. The State cannot decide who can marry and who cannot based on
any religious view.
And all that's been "forced" is that the
State issue marriage licenses. You can still call them whatever you want. You can still refuse to participate in the ceremony. You can still call it a sin.
You just can't legally block them from getting the same piece of paper granting the same
Government recognized (as differentiated from Church recognized) rights, privileges, and responsibilities that are given to heterosexual couples.
Hate speech is still not illegal in the US. As long as you don't make homophobic slurs while committing an illegal act (making it obvious that you committed the illegal act because of the sexual orientation of your victims), you won;t go to jail in the US. So if you beat up a gay man while spouting homophobic slurs, yes, you'll be charged with a hate crime because it will be obvious that you beat him for being gay. But if you stand up in your church or your home or even on the street and just say the homophobic slurs and tell them they're going to hell or whatever (you can use the Westboro Baptists as an example here, you all seem to agree), you'll be fine. You'll call people names, other people will call you a bigot, and nobody will go to jail. That's the Freedom of Speech.
The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it. - Francis Bacon
"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." - John Rogers
A world that can be explained even with bad reasons is a familiar world. But, on the other hand, in a universe suddenly divested of illusions and lights, man feels an alien, a stranger. His exile is without remedy since he is deprived of the memory of a lost home or the hope of a promised land. This divorce between man and his life, the actor and his setting, is properly the feeling of absurdity. — Albert Camus
"...the pious hope that by combining numerous little turds of variously tainted data, one can obtain a valuable result; but in fact, the outcome is merely a larger than average pile of shit." - Barash, David 1995...
"Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends." - Gandalf, J. R. R. Tolkien: The Lord Of the Rings
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