Now it's time to annoy religious conservatives.
Conservative stance on gay marriage? Go for it, but separate Caesar and God first.
Gay people want the same rights as straight ones? Fine by me, though I do not agree with it on a religious level. But who cares? Certainly not our founding fathers who, though overwhelmingly Christian, wrote the following: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. If they had wished to create a Christian theocracy they could have done so, they were starting from scratch after all.
The genius of the founding fathers lie in being able to separate Caesar from God, however, and as Thomas Jefferson wrote "But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." Man I love that guy.
If one wishes to make the argument that our democracy was founded upon Christian beliefs, that is in part true. However it was also taken from Classical Greek beliefs and yet we are not forced to worship Zeus, it borrows heavily from certain native Indian tribes and yet we're not required to follow their animism. Ours is a system which was designed to keep the rights of all to believe what they will.
And therein lies the problem, and the elegant solution.
When the vast majority of people in this country were Christians or at least paid lip service to christian tradition, it made sense for the state to issue marriage certificates based on religious ceremonies. But today we have a different story altogether. Today there are so many schisms in personal belief that the very act of issuing a marriage license has become an endorsement of a specific set of religious beliefs.
In order to remove the hand of government from determining what is morally right, we need the State to stop offering licenses based on religious ceremony and return religious purity to the faiths that espouse it. It does not break my leg.
But right now it DOES pick my pocket. How so? Marriage benefits in social security. If we eliminate them, and expect each person to provide for themselves and, if need be, their significant other, then we return responsibility to those it should rest upon and at the same time remove any financial imbalance caused by religious rites. After that, the compromise is easy.
In a truly conservative system there should rightfully be 3 options which protect the state from the church, church from the state, and us from each others personally held beliefs.
1)Civil certification without religious ceremony. This gives all the legal rights to any people who wish to have them without costing anyone who does not like your beliefs a single penny.
2)Religious without civil certification. You wish to proclaim your love before your God and have your faith bless your union? Go for it. No legal binding whatsoever. Just remember this is rites without rights.
3)Religious ceremony and civil certification. This is the one I am pretty certain most people would go for. Pledge your love before your God, and receive that blessing of your union, then head on down and get your certification giving you all those legal rights.
Keep religion free for all, not just the ones you agree with. The tide always turns, and if you don't want the State determining what is right against YOUR moral beliefs, then keep the nation safe for all of them.
As Mark wrote: "And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they marveled at him."
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