Next for gay marriage - New York

Wake me when a state decides to Take a Third Option and stop recognizing marriage at all. THAT would be interesting.

Won't happen. There's too much federal law on it, so even if a state wanted to do so (and they won't), they'd never get it to happen.

Family units (of different types) form pretty naturally, and not giving them legal protection is spelling trouble. Mostly with stuff like inhertance and stuff.

Nope. Not happening.

I don't get the hate towards marriage. Maybe it's the fact of the perceived religious connections.

@Jethro If that's the case, why not just give legal benefits to family units and not just couples?

Family do have some benefits. It's unrelated adults who need a legal transaction.

@Chihuahua: Its that despite marriage having existed in various forms for eons before they were a blip on existence, Christians are absolutely sure that a form of marriage never even followed in the Bible strictly is the only "traditional" marriage.

About that thing with the Baptists and the Catholics: my parents' preacher actually had to preach about why hating the Catholics was wrong...because the people at the church were stealing the Catholic Church next door's parking spaces.

Yeah, some people are that ignorant. Luckily, my mother isn't.

As for me, I have not been to church in four years and I actually feel good about it.

@Buschemi WHAT

@Midget Can we not generalize please? I'm sure you know that not all Christians believe that.

Yeah. This was the first place I heard the whole "marriage should be abolished" stance.

It's interesting how the Republican Party is considered the more religious one. Maybe it got to do with the general belief of it (people over government) and government-church separation?

edited 26th Jun '11 5:15:00 PM by chihuahua0

@Chihuahua It's not so much as abolishing marriage is it is about changing the way it's perceived.

Civil marriage and religious martial rituals are too closely entwined by the law.

@KCK: I know a lot don't. But it tends to be one of the "better" arguments for banning gay marriage.

@ KCK Yeah, really. Some people were stealing parking spaces from the Catholic church next door, the preacher got pissed and created a sermon on how we should respect people of other denominations.

I don't think many people caught on.

@Buscemi: well obviously. Catholics arent god fearing protestsant christians so they arent so much a denomination as the antichrist in human form.

(I'm being sarcastic here)

Huh. I've never noticed much in the way of that. All the churches in my neighbourhood (Baptist, United, Lutherans, Anglican, and Catholic) got together and did a cooperative service for Good Friday, in a way that my mother descibed as 'like a pub crawl but with churches instead'.

@Buschemi Oh well, at least the preacher spoke out against it and isn't encouraging such behavior.

@Midget It's one of the worst because the Bible—or primarily the New Testament—doesn't make a statement disregarding the inferiority of different marital rituals.

@KCK: I'm aware its a terrible argument. As a former christian who read the bible quite a bit as a child, I cant say I ever remember even seeing a line vaguely detailing wedlock as man + girl and no exceptions.

Good job New York! The US needs a big state to go along with this.

@Karmakin: So that is the difference between the standard Protesant values and Calvinism?

Because I know some churches in the States have been preaching that being successful financially is good fatih-wise. I just didn't know Calvinism worked like that.

edited 26th Jun '11 7:31:16 PM by Erock

Calvinism is a flavor of Protestantism.

Originally Calvinism didn't quite go that far (although apparently it was very influential in tossing aside anti-usury traditions), but the seeds seemed to be there for the modern prosperity gospel (which is what you're talking about), yes.

The diffference usually is Calvinists believe you cant be saved if you werent born saved.

Well, Calvinistic predetermination is more like the idea that the Elect are, by necessity of God's omniscience and timelessness/omnipresence, predetermined.

Is there a thread on Christianity and The Republican Party already?

@chihuahua

What I find kind of amusing/interesting is that my own state is both 2/3 Christian (mainly in the Catholic flavor) and strongly Democrat/left-wing.

I thought of that since Republicans tend to have more religious-routed beliefs (anti gay marriage, pro-choice).

But enough with that. With the bill past, what do you think will happen next?

edited 26th Jun '11 10:16:47 PM by chihuahua0

a billion attempts by the right wing to repeal it.