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Originally Posted by Sociable
Well said Towny.
Like me you see the clear distinction between the religious and civil definitions of marriage which are at the heart of the debate. Once that distinction is made there is actually very little between the two extremes of opinion.
That said the churches themselves are beginning to take on board the need to rethink some of the entrenched attitudes towards gays both in their teachings and also in their own internal structures following the appointment of an openly gay Bishop in the US recently.
In time I suspect that the spirit of a loving, tolerant and understanding God will guide the churches to a resolution even of the vexed question of the recognition of gay marriage, but I suspect that may be some way off just yet. (Just look at the time it took many of them to consider let alone endorse the ordination of women.)
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The issues within the church are far more complicated than those outside ... for example, regarding ordination of women, high-church Anglicans and extremely evangelical Anglicans alike opposed the move, but for entirely different reasons. High-churchmen see the priest as a representative of Christ at the front of the congregation, so naturally the priest must be male as Christ is. Fundamentalists oppose women as priests because of teachings by St Paul that women should not be permitted to take authority over a man. I'm not going off topic by saying which (if either!) of these positions I have sympathy with, I simply use it as an illustration of how things are rarely as simple as you think!