Let's take a broad meat-axe to your entire convoluted post, and cut to the marrow:
The State is People. Human beings.
No one is more cognizant than I that our present government is an evil enterprise instilling its Culture of Death at home and abroad to the tune of millions dead and untold millions of lives PREVENTED each year.
Be that as it may ...
Nations and states still are people and it's people -- especially those who listen to their consciences -- that understand and are perfectly capable of upholding, if not always themselves remaining obedient to, the Natural Moral Law.
Further, it is a scientific fact of sorts that -- absent electricity or some other technological assist -- that Survival of the Fittest as part of Evolution theory mandates the conception of children ONLY by the one Man and the one Woman and, further, strongly suggests that the optimum arrangement for Man, Woman AND CHILD is the patriarchal family enjoying the same division of labor between male and female that is written into the first cell of every human being ever born on the face of this earth.
Yes, Virginia ... I do indeed believe the State is not only capable of recognizing these facts but obligated to defend them in light of a JUST State's interest in ensuring freedom and justice for all its citizenry.
You -- like some of our Libertarian or self-styled "anarchist" friends -- are simply too caught up in this Evil State crap to think logically and dispassionately about the issue.
This is particularly absurd for others (if not you and your Biblical meat cleaver) given the fact that they're perpetually hearkening to the Self-Evident truths embodied in our Declaration as founding document when rightfully moaning about the excesses and evils of our present government. It's as if they wish to eat their pie and throw it too.
Individuals may strictly obligate themselves as they see fit when marrying (as do some Catholics) or employ the gamut of Personal Values when confecting an "open" or same-sex or group marriage ... or even marrying one's pet or an urn of ashes. Basically, anything goes.
In order to preserve the foundation of a just society with specific legal protections due every life -- particularly the innocent children the product of Perfectly Natural sexual relations one assumes is part of marriage -- the State is OBLIGATED to recognize and protect as sovereign the institution of marriage.
What's really absurd is that you appear on the defensive almost. As if I had some hope in hell of our nation's actually preserving the institution of marriage as strictly that between Man and Wife.
Don't kid yourself.
Our government's too far gone for that. Instead, we'll be employing the same spirit of Sensitivity, Diversity and non-Discrimination that Bush is using to schlep his (and Gore's) "faith-based partnerships" initiatives.
All rather silly, actually ... especially for a nation whose President has already sanctioned the use of "Excess" manufactured human lives for research and appointed a pro-human cloning director of the NIH whose budget he doubled.
You'll get your way, don't worry OP. Everyone will be entitled to their own atomistic definition of marriage (homosexuality equal to heterosexuality; blessed equal to strictly secular; sterile equal to fruitful; casual equal to formal) and the State will be only too happy to obliterate the Universal Reality and enduring ideal to which most aspire in their hearts and by which individuals, their families and their nations prosper, grow strong and are able to defend themselves against the encroachments of others and the State.
"Prevented"?? Killed would be a bit more true to the matter.
Be that as it may....
Nations and states still are people and it's people -- especially those who listen to their consciences -- that understand and are perfectly capable of upholding, if not always themselves remaining obedient to, the Natural Moral Law.
The Natural Moral Law for the State is that it exercises NO AUTHORITY WHATSOEVER over the "definition" and "certification" of Marriage.
Further, it is a scientific fact of sorts that -- absent electricity or some other technological assist -- that Survival of the Fittest as part of Evolution theory mandates the conception of children ONLY by the one Man and the one Woman and, further, strongly suggests that the optimum arrangement for Man, Woman AND CHILD is the patriarchal family enjoying the same division of labor between male and female that is written into the first cell of every human being ever born on the face of this earth.
Why on earth are you bringing up "evolution theory"??
I couldn't give a tinker's damn about the Apostate Roman "church"s whoredoms with "evolution theory".
I am an Orthodox Calvinist.
Why are you even bothering me with Apostate Rome's whorish compromises with "evolution theory"? As I am a Communicant Member of the Biblically legitimate Church of Jesus Christ, you should know full well that I am under NO Christian obligation to admit the Errors of Fallen Rome in this regard, so why even raise the argument?
Yes, Virginia ... I do indeed believe the State is not only capable of recognizing these facts but obligated to defend them in light of a JUST State's interest in ensuring freedom and justice for all its citizenry.
If the State cannot recognize that it possesses NO natural authority to "define" or "certify" Marriage in any way whatsoever, then it is a Moloch-State which is at War against the Natural Law.
You -- like some of our Libertarian or self-styled "anarchist" friends -- are simply too caught up in this Evil State crap to think logically and dispassionately about the issue.
You -- like so many of our Neo-Conservative enemies -- are simply too caught up in this God-State crap to think Biblically and Morally about the issue.
In order to preserve the foundation of a just society with specific legal protections due every life -- particularly the innocent children the product of Perfectly Natural sexual relations one assumes is part of marriage -- the State is OBLIGATED to recognize and protect as sovereign the institution of marriage.
And of course, when the State provides absolute legal protection for Private Contracts, then the State is duty-bound to provide absolute legal protection for those Contracts which are defined (by the Right of the Church ALONE) as constituting "Christian Marriages".
But at the point that Caesar claims the "right" to define and certify what constitutes a "Marriage", then the Institution of Marriage has become Caesar's Whore.
What's really absurd is that you appear on the defensive almost. As if I had some hope in hell of our nation's actually preserving the institution of marriage as strictly that between Man and Wife. Don't kid yourself. Our government's too far gone for that. Instead, we'll be employing the same spirit of Sensitivity, Diversity and non-Discrimination that Bush is using to schlep his (and Gore's) "faith-based partnerships" initiatives. All rather silly, actually ... especially for a nation whose President has already sanctioned the use of "Excess" manufactured human lives for research and appointed a pro-human cloning director of the NIH whose budget he doubled.
You don't have a "hope in hell" of preserving the institution of marriage, Askel5, because you have already assumed that the Church should whore out the definition and certification of Marriage to the fornications of the State.
At this point, you've already resolved yourself to advocate the Spiritual Adulteration of Marriage; you just think that maybe Caesar will consent to wear a "defense of marriage amendment" prophylactic -- if you ask him real nice.
You'll get your way, don't worry OP. Everyone will be entitled to their own atomistic definition of marriage (homosexuality equal to heterosexuality; blessed equal to strictly secular; sterile equal to fruitful; casual equal to formal) and the State will be only too happy to obliterate the Universal Reality and enduring ideal to which most aspire in their hearts and by which individuals, their families and their nations prosper, grow strong and are able to defend themselves against the encroachments of others and the State.
I don't expect to get "my way". MY way would permanently remove from Caesar the power to "obliterate" Marriage, by permanently removing from Caesar the Right to "define" or "certify" Marriage.
If I were to have MY way, then AN-ARCH-IST (which being translated means, NOT-STATE-DICTATED) Biblical Marriages like Abram and Sarai's (the only Biblical sort of Marriage, after all) would thrive; while the Lavender Brigade, not having a State Certification to wave in Jerry Falwell's face (just a "private contract" which the Church has no Legal Obligation to recognize) would be left out in the cold, to sulk.
I don't "expect" to get "my way".
Either the Church will wrest away from Caesar his wholly-illegitimate usurpations over the definition and certification of Marriage, or the Church will ultimately be forced to consent to Caesar's whims thereupon.
As long as you consent (and what is more, to advocate) that the Church should whore out the definition and certification of Marriage unto Caesar, the best that you can hope for is a "defense of marriage amendment" prophylactic while Caesar continues to Rape the Institution.
And even that won't last. Caesar is a Beast, and once She is prostituted to his whims, the Institution of Marriage will suffer his "rough trade" soon enough.
And for your endorsement of the spiritual prostitution of the Institution of Marriage to the fornications, you'll have no one to blame but yourself.
Because it will be YOUR FAULT... for whoring Marriage unto Caesar, and thereby making War against the Law of God.