Anitra does less than 600 words on same-gender marriage :-)

There are some ethical values that are universal. However, there is also a lot of disagreement about what is right and what is wrong, even among members of the same culture. There are Christians who think that none of us should drink coffee, or drink alcohol -- in any amount -- or dance with a member of the opposite sex, even if we're married to 'em. There are people who think that none of us should eat meat, wear leather, or even own animals as pets.

You have the right to say what you think is right, and argue for it. You do not have the right to do so unchallenged, or without criticism. You must do what you think is right. You do not have the right to impose your standards on others by force of law, arbitrarily.

The only justification for legally limiting the right of all individuals to act as they will is to protect the equal rights of all other individuals. Society has a legitimate interest in forbidding murder, theft, rape, arson, and other offenses against the rights and well-being of others. Society has a legitimate interest in enforcing the positive moral obligations we have to each other as fellow humans: to care for each other in illness and accident; to protect and raise children; to protect public health and prosperity.

If you can demonstrate that same-gender marriage causes a harm to others that they have a right to be defended against, or deprives others of a good they have a right to expect, then you can make a case for legally limiting the right to marriage. If not, you can't. You have a right to be protected from harm. You do not have a right to be protected from being offended.

It is good and proper to want to protect marriage. It does not protect marriage as a whole to limit and restrict it. We should be strengthening marital and family bonds, giving couples and families the support they need to take care of each other, rallying round when we see families in trouble. Forbidding people from entering bonds of caring for each other is the wrong way to go to strengthen society.

Approving a same-gender marriage is not approving the couple's sexual activity. No marital ceremony I know of, civil or religious, refers to how the couple are to have sex. The social approval of marriage is approval of the commitment to take care of each other and of any dependent. The social benefits given to married couples are to support the fulfillment of those obligations. Many heterosexual couples do things in their bedroom that some of their Christian neighbors would disapprove of. Nobody calls for dissolving their marriages because of it. What heterosexual couples do sexually together is none of the community's business, and neither is what homosexual couples do sexually together. What is the community's business is if they are taking care of each other and taking care of their dependents, and fulfilling their responsibilities to the community as a couple.

Methinks my fellow Christians should all stop being so blessed obsessed with sex. It's not healthy, son.