Marriage is a civil right in the US

Hey im not sure if this has been mentioned earlier in this discussion, because I really didnt have time to read 270 posts. But has it been mentioned that marriage is a christian tradition. Obviously bible doctrine is clearly against homosexuality, and biblically marraige is where a man and woman are united into one. (please read the next parragraph before bombarding me with abuse)Im not saying that people dont have the right to choose to be gay, which I believe they do. But the basic concept of the term "marriage" is that it is the joining of a man and a woman. Over in my little corner of the world in New Zealand, gay marriage rights are a hot topic. Gay people in New Zealand can have what is called a civil union. They have all the same rights as married couples (dont quote me on that 100%, I think gay couple adoption is still being discussed) but they are not "married" as such.I think people have the right to choose to be homosexual. But they should not try to take what was not intended for them, marriage.p.s. As for what I read on the first page of this thread. I think that it a load of rubbish. There is only one race, the human race. This was one of the conclusions of the human genome project. I firmly believe God has no issue with interracial marriage. This is just a side note, I know its off topic and most of you probably dont care.Matt

Ok well I kind of said it rather quickly to save time. In christian theology marriage has been around since Adam and Eve. Genesis 2:15 "Adam and his wife" (just part of the verse, but it makes the point). Hence if you are a bible believer (which I take you probably are not) then marraige has been around since the begining of man and this explains why all cultures and religions have marriage, because it has always been.This is just an attempt to explain how christians claim ownership of marriage. Call it obserd if you will, but it makes sense for them to do so if the scripture is what they believe. I have agnostic friends who think that all non christians should have civil unions, take this as extreme if you will. Not sure why you thought that needed a question mark, but anyway. As I just explained this isnt a problem. To clarify, in no way do christians believe that there was no marraige before Jesus and that he told everyone that we should all get married. marriage defenition

1. The legal union of a man and woman as husband and wife.
2. The state of being married; wedlock.
3. A common-law marriage.
4. A union between two persons having the customary but usually not the legal force of marriage: a same-sex marriage.

I just dont think the joining of two people of the same sex is marriage. Fair enough if they want the same rights I suppose (not sure about this one though). Oh so you are an expert on the topic and you have the knowledge to say this athough the real cause behind homsexuality is still not known? I assume you are or else you wouldnt be making claims like this. I suppose you could say the same for me however as I did say that they choose. So fair enough . But there are cases of identical twins where one is gay and one is straight. This is a big smack in the face as it pretty much (notice the pretty much) rules out genetics, environment they are raised in, and hormonal conditions in the womb as causes for homosexuality. Meh, well post 499 sounds pretty cool as well.