I'm still not sure why the religious right is so mortified over the prospect of same-sex civil marriage. There is no evidence that same-sex couples having access to the rights and responsibilities of civil marriage does any damage to traditional marriage. Though I guess I should be careful about using that term -- whose traditions are we talking about? Restrictions on race, women as chattel and polygamy could certainly be defined as "traditional" in terms of marriage. For the life of me, I can't see how Bob and I having a marriage license would affect anyone else's relationship. I know, I know, they think by approving civil marriage we we will be putting society's stamp of approval on what many people think of as sin. I would remind those folks that some religions think the consumption of alcohol, or dancing or wearing immodest clothing is sinful, but we tolerate those behaviors in our pluralistic society.
But, for whatever reason, the same-sex marriage thing has really got under their skin. Witness this from an organization called "Save California." Click to see the whole page, but here's the money quote: "History is replete with examples of doing what was right despite unjust laws and tyrannical orders, (including) the post-WWII Nuremberg trials punishing military officers who followed orders and committed crimes against humanity." What's interesting is what this page said when it was originally posted: "Ask your county clerk if they were a Nazi officer during WWII and had been ordered to gas the Jews, would they? At the Nuremberg trials, they would have been convicted of murder for following this immoral order."
Apparently they think the wording was abhorrent, but not the overall concept. They're wrong.
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