Scoey
Tony Shaw (54)
The other one which has been used so frequently in this thread is that marriage is a Christian institution and should therefore be guided by Christian values and traditions. No matter how much historical evidence is presented, it seems hard to persuade people against this point.
Agreed that marriage is not a Christian institution. But where the sensitivity comes into it, is that some get married for solely religious reasons. So to them, on a personal level, it may be a religious institution? It's not exclusively theirs but they may have difficulty differentiating between a marriage within the church as an institution and a legal marriage. As to them, they are one and the same. They need to yield on their side for the argument to move forward but by the same token the pro gay marriage movement can't be simply dismissive of what they believe, by saying that they are simply wrong. I think it's important to establish a point of difference between a marriage in the church and a legal marriage which is what I think you are saying. This seems to be the stumbling block. You can have a legal marriage without a church marriage but not vice versa. So the church can set as many restrictions it wants on the church marriages but leave the legal side of things alone?