[quote=cooprider]
I do. Because marriage between a man and a woman has nothing to do with religion. Thou shalt not murder – is that “religious” too?
Just because something is supported by people who also happen to go to church doesn’t mean it’s exclusively a religious value being shoved down atheistic throats. It’s a family value, and there are plenty of non-religious married men and women who value marriage too.
When marriage laws were written they probably never even thought to specify only between a man and a woman. They didn’t need to back then.
You prove my point. You can’t fathom the law allowing 3 people to be married, but at the time the marrige laws were written they couldn’t fathom it being anything but a man and a woman.[/quote]
Most marriages that take place in the United States are between a man and a woman of the same race, both under 45, with the groom no more than 5 years younger than the bride. That’s what you call a “family value”. It has nothing to do with religion, just social customs and human preferences.
But once in a while there is a guy who wants to marry a woman who’s 15 years older than him (Ashton Kutcher & Demi Moore), or a white guy who wants to marry an Asian girl, or a guy who wants to have two wives, or a guy who wants to marry another guy. Whatever their personal quirk is. And our laws don’t treat these cases equally. Marrying an older woman is OK and it’s always been OK. Bans on interracial marriages were declared inconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1967. Gays are fighting for their rights now, and polygamists are still waiting their turn.
Marriage is not a religious value. I am not religious, but I am married. I don’t feel that letting gays marry each other threatens my marriage in any way – any more than letting Ashton Kutcher marry Demi Moore does.
Religion plays a role in trying to _restrict_ the definition of marriage. Right-wingers seem to be saying that, their church does not recognize the marriage between gays (because gays are seen as sinful and perverted) and therefore our government should not recognize it, either. THAT’s where religious values are being shoved down atheistic throats. I may think that Ashton Kutcher is sinful and perverted, too, but I don’t go around demanding that he should not be allowed to marry whoever he wants. He can go and marry Seann William Scott, for all I care. It’s his personal business.
