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The ceremony one enjoys in his/her church has emotional meaning only.
This depends on what you believe, really. I think the religious meaning of marriage is FAR more important than governmental aspects. I see the government as merely utilizing the concept of marraige for its own uses as the model makes sense in some areas. My marriage to my wife is NOT dependant whatsoever on what the law says. If they dissolved the concept of legal marraige entirely (which I've said before is a step I'd probably support) we'd still be very much married in every sense that we are now. I view marraige as a spiritual covenant, and that this type of covenant dates before there WAS such a thing as government. I realize that this is not a perspective we'd ever agree on, but you surely can see how I'd feel like the government redifining a concept I hold to be one of the church as being improper and a violation of the separation between church and state. An example I've cited before was if the the government suddenly began basing laws on baptism and then redifining exactly what baptism is. The church would understandably be very upset over this. People keep saying that it is a violation of church and state seperation to say marriage is limited to only one man and one woman, however the church feels it's a violation of church and state seperation for the government to redefine what the church believes. And it IS true that the church can go on defining "marriage" however it wants regardless of what the state says, but it still seems wrong for the state to even be involved. Of course for those who hold that marriage is a natural social construct that did not origionate with the church then it seems wrong for the church to be involved. That's a dissonace of believes that is just about impossible to resolve, but rather than recognizing this as a difference of beliefs both sides tend to demonize the other.
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-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.