I wish Free Republic commentors would be a little less juvenile and more serious about this subject.
No one has a the power, much less a right, to do what they cannot do.
Marriage has been attached to male female relationships since time began.
According to everyone in favor of it that I hear defending it, the rationale for it is that “people should be able to marry whom they love”
In some cultures, whom one loves has nothing to do with marriage. It has to do with establishing family ties and/or with begetting children. It also has to do with respecting and ennobling each sex with the intimate interaction of the other in a way that homosexual relationships just can’t do.
The physical, psychological, hormonal, brain structure complementarity (or differences that help the other to grow in their specific human nature) just isn’t there in the same sex relationship.
There are reasons that homosexual acts have been condemned to a greater or lesser extent historically.
Does not mean that we have to hate homosexuals or deny them equal rights. Prohibitions against marriage do not deny any homosexual their basic or equal rights. Any or all of them can marry a person of the opposite sex, just like a heterosexual. Any of them can confer health care power of attorney on anyone they wish, so they can visit them in the hospital. They can will their property to anyone they wish. They can live with anyone they wish. The law can be changed to allow people to confer social security benefits to a person who has supported them through thick and thin as spouses in traditional marriage receive.
What they cannot do, is participate in an institution which requires different genes, different “parts” etc.
On EWTN the theology roundtable (Scott Hahn was there.) was talking about just HOW far away from Christianity/Judaism Islam is.
Granted they abhor homosexuality but they espouse the tenets of Mohammad, who says he got them from God, that is, the four wives, not from God, but really from Mohammad.
The CORE difference between the faiths is the view of God.
God is Our Father who created us in His image and likeness and we are HIS children. Jesus was His Beloved Son and we are beloved children, depending on our behavior. God Our Father send His Only Begotten Son so we might be reconciled to Our Father.
In Islam, Allah is NOT "our father" and we are NOT "His children." The relationship is ALMIGHTY and His slaves. The VERY common Muslim name is Abdullah, or "slave of Allah." The entire relationship is not one of fatherly love and the desire for closeness and for OUR doing well to be close to God.
Scholars believe that this master/slave relationship, without that driving LOVE of God Our Father, is what drives the "jihad" mentality, the killing of infidels and so on.
Just some thoughts.