I have seen his wedding pictures they took while in NYC. They looked so happy. No one was hurt. They each have a love of their life. I know the Bible says this is a sin, but is that the job for Christians to decide. Doesn’t the Bible also say, “Judge not least you be judged”. It seems to me that when one judges whether a person is a sinner, that they are assuming the power of God. I would think that that is “taking the name of God in vain”. Besides the reasoning is wrong. Traditional marriages of the last hundred years are not what the Bible had. Abraham had two wives. Solomon had a thousand and his ‘sin’ was that he married from outside the Jewish clan. And arranged marriages were and still are common in all nations. During the lifetime of Jesus, the Romans who ruled the land, had their public baths with homosexual acts routine. Yet Jesus talked about feeding the poor, healing the sick, visiting those in prison….not attacking the gays. Of course, Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding. Even Jesus could be judged by some as he used wine. It seems to me that in the Bible, many of the rules or laws we now ignore or explain away. Few Christians believe in slavery anymore, yet rules are there for all to see concerning the treatment of slaves. In fact, unless I am Jewish, I would want to see what Jesus has to say. After all, he is the only one who can speak for God as his son. And he says feed the poor, heal the sick, visit those in prison; not take away health insurance, cut food stamps, incarcerate more prisoners, And don’t forget love and peace, not war. When I was in my early 20’s, my church that I attended applied to the state and I became a licensed minister. This allowed me to legally marry someone in the state of Missouri. I don’t know how or through what procedures the regular minister went through (I was only a student minister), but for the pastor of a church to marry someone, they had to have authorization from the state. Marriage is a legal event. One can be married by a justice of the peace or a judge or other state officials depending on the state laws. Anyone married by someone not authorized by the state is not married. Only a hundred years or so ago, a married woman who became a widow would have all the property of the marriage given to a brother, uncle or one of the male children. Even property that she owned before the marriage became the property of the husband and his heirs. Even today, the rights of a woman are determined by martial laws according to the state she lives in and divorces abide by these rules. These legal rules may be involved when social security is drawn by a married woman. Men may have alimony payments to make according to state laws. Churches may have different beliefs concerning marriage, but our laws rule. Until we have religious controlled government, this will remain true. The biggest problem even there is unless one church controls the government, there will no agreement. The Pilgrims, Catholics, Methodists, Quakers, and many other religions came to America because the Church of England would not allow any other religion freedom to worship as they wished. Just remember that it you win and enforce the religious beliefs concerning any belief, they the door is open for some other religion to enforce their beliefs which may not be in line with the church. It easy to be against somebody different than you and one can rant and rave, make jokes or call them names. It is easy to at least to attempt to follow the teachings of Jesus. Just an e-mail to the Congress representative concerning better treatment for the mentally ill or…… Done that yet?? I will not sentence my son to a loveless life time because you feel that all should only believe as you do even though you are the minority of our country. If you want the ability to believe as you wish under our constitution, then give everyone else the same right. That is the separation of state and religion that our country was founded on. You might find the following Daily Kos ‘If you claim to be a Christian’ interesting.