This is the thing - you are confusing Biblical and Legislative marriage. Nobody is saying a priest, pastor, or what have you shouldn't have the right to say "I don't want to do gay marriages"... that's a RELIGIOUS thing, and should be up to the religious to decide.
What we ARE saying is, lawfully and legislatively speaking, we CANNOT forbid people from getting married, filing taxes together, et al. Remember, separation of Church and State and all that jazz.
Would I have a problem with my friend/daughter/mother et all marrying another woman? No. In fact, after 25 years married to my abusive bastard of a "father", my mother is now living happily with her girlfriend. Was that a little awkward for me? You bet - mostly because she happened to be my BOSS at the time, and my mother wasn't upfront about it (in fact, she tried to DENY it for months because she was terrified of what her mother and her own kids, myself and my lil bro, would think about it).
You know what my brother and I think about our mother being with another woman? We think that she is the HAPPIEST we have seen her in... well, our entire lives! She's healthier, happier, smiles more, and generally enjoying life more, because she is no longer taking abuse from an alcoholic husband and has found someone who shares the same interests and who she honestly connects with.
Going from a purely biblical sense, she would have had NO right or way to divorce my father, NO right or way to be get away from the abuse, and NO right or way to be with the person who TRULY makes her happy.
Now, tell me... is not her happiness MORE IMPORTANT than someone's petty ideal that "Oh, she's a woman, she can't be with another woman"? They don't make out in public or anything, but anyone and everyone who sees them KNOW they are happy together.
To me, that is FAR more important than ANY religious bigotry could EVER be. And if God wants to send me to Hell for thinking such, well, then dammit that isn't a God I would want to know anyway.
What we ARE saying is, lawfully and legislatively speaking, we CANNOT forbid people from getting married, filing taxes together, et al. Remember, separation of Church and State and all that jazz.
Would I have a problem with my friend/daughter/mother et all marrying another woman? No. In fact, after 25 years married to my abusive bastard of a "father", my mother is now living happily with her girlfriend. Was that a little awkward for me? You bet - mostly because she happened to be my BOSS at the time, and my mother wasn't upfront about it (in fact, she tried to DENY it for months because she was terrified of what her mother and her own kids, myself and my lil bro, would think about it).
You know what my brother and I think about our mother being with another woman? We think that she is the HAPPIEST we have seen her in... well, our entire lives! She's healthier, happier, smiles more, and generally enjoying life more, because she is no longer taking abuse from an alcoholic husband and has found someone who shares the same interests and who she honestly connects with.
Going from a purely biblical sense, she would have had NO right or way to divorce my father, NO right or way to be get away from the abuse, and NO right or way to be with the person who TRULY makes her happy.
Now, tell me... is not her happiness MORE IMPORTANT than someone's petty ideal that "Oh, she's a woman, she can't be with another woman"? They don't make out in public or anything, but anyone and everyone who sees them KNOW they are happy together.
To me, that is FAR more important than ANY religious bigotry could EVER be. And if God wants to send me to Hell for thinking such, well, then dammit that isn't a God I would want to know anyway.