............. SERIOUSLY?!

I didn't know what else to title this post. I have no real words to succinctly frame my state of mind, my opinion on this issue.

So the Courts are meeting on Same-Sex Marriage. Again.
A-
-fucking-
-gain.

OK, I don't understand this. Here are my issues:
1) "Marriage" is a union given religious sanction. To be "married" is to be joined in the eyes of the church. If a religion rules that you may not be married to someone of the same sex, then that's that. I don't give a fuck. If Church A says "no", but Church B says "yes", then you may be married in Church B, but NOT Church A. Simple as that.
2) Don't we have something called... what is it.... SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE?! Why the FUCK is the fucking GOVERNMENT deciding what CHURCHES may or may not do?!??!?!??!?!!! Negative. If the Church decides that men may marry donkeys, but the Government doesn't hold that as legal, then go right ahead; marry that donkey and the man. Inside of that church, that's sanctioned. Step outside the doors of that church, and you have *no* legal sanction; you don't get to file joint taxes, you don't get whatever other things the Government allows for most unified couples, because it doesn't recognize your union. Vice versa: If the Government recognizes your same-sex union, WHICH IT SHOULD, then that's fine; you get to file the joint taxes and raise children and be recognized by the State as a unified couple. However, go into a church, and you are no longer recognized. The Church is under NO OBLIGATION to recognize you, and the Government CAN'T FORCE IT TO.

So, Civil Unions are FINE. The Government has NO RIGHT to declare whether or not someone may marry another person. If the Government gave Person A a tax break for wearing a shirt, it can't refuse the same break to Person B for wearing the wrong color shirt. The Law in the United States is supposed to protect its citizens and allow for their pursuit of Liberty and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.
I'm sorry, but gay people should NOT be "married". They can live together, and be unified under the Law, and thereby get all the rights and allowances and privileges of heterosexual couples; however, they CAN NOT BE MARRIED. Remember Problem #1? Yeah; "marriage" is a union UNDER THE CHURCH. The CHURCH decides who may or may not be married. Saying that the Government should *make* the Church marry people whom the Church doesn't believe should be married is like... like telling the Catholic Church to marry Wiccans! FUCK NO. If you don't believe that the Bible *does* condemn homosexuality (which it very much does, BTW) then start your own fucking Church. Don't demand that the ancient established religions rectify the teachings they've gone by for a few thousand years to recognize what you believe is right. You join a religion because you believe what it says; if you don't believe it, then you don't join that church.

..... Seriously, I can't say this enough:
MARRIAGE IS A RELIGIOUS SANCTION.
THE GOVERNMENT HAS NO SAY OVER WHAT THE CHURCH DOES (so long as it doesn't interfere with the Government or cause harm to its citizens)
I don't understand why this is a fucking issue. Do gay people just want to say that they are "married"? Is that actually different from a "union"? Call it whatever the fuck you want; the fact is that you can't be "married", because to be "married" you HAVE to go through the Church, and the Church believes that gay people are evil and wrong. You should be allowed to have a Civil Union.
Heterosexual couples get a marriage license, and are recognized officially by the Law as married; going to a Church and being wed by a priest/pastor/whatever doesn't make you "married" legally. You have to go through the two systems separately. So gay couples should be allowed to be joined legally; they just don't have to use the Church.

OK, listen; the Church is actually right about one thing: They Bible DOES condemn homosexuality. Several times. The Church is absolutely right about denying homosexuality as true love, and declaring it instead a perversion and a sin; in the Bible, it says so, and assuming that the Bible is absolutely true, then homosexuality is wrong. (I don't believe that the Bible is without flaws; I mean, *come*on*- *humans* wrote it!)
Pastors who decide to defy the Church's teachings and marry gay people shouldn't do that. If you believe that the Church is wrong, take it up with the Church, but you are in NO position to act outside of official authority. If I were in Afghanistan and said, "You know what, this war is totally wrong; we shouldn't be fighting here. Let's make peace!" and went outside the wire, laid down my rifle, and gave the Taliban maps and money and supplies, I'd be branded a traitor and probably shot. Several times. And rightly so; I'm acting as a United States Marine, doing something outside of the United States' policy, with detrimental effects to the United States' efforts. Pastors who marry gay people *are* acting outside of the Church's allowance, without official go-ahead, and should be removed from their positions within the Church for doing so.

STOP BEING CONFUSED AND FUCKING THINK.
The Church gets to decide what it will allow. The United States can't go to Great Britain and demand that it meet its emissions standards and change their road signs to match the ones in the USA; they're separate heads of power. Likewise, the Government has NO SAY in what the Church does, and the Church has NO SAY in what the Government does.

I..... seriously, just...... FUCK. I don't know what else to fucking say! I want to say *something*, but I don't know what to... seriously, this pisses me off. Not because I have a personal stake in this matter; I'm heterosexual, and I'm not about to hop fences. But it really, really angers me when people keep saying STUPID SHIT and arguing about this without actually thinking about what's going on. Heterosexual Bible-belt conservatives think that gay people are coming to destroy marriage and interfere with their Churches; liberal free-spirit pussies think that the conservatives are gun-waving lunatics who can't cope with change and hate gay people for no reason other than their homosexuality.
OK, parts of that are true, but overall it just isn't.
Christians are failing to realize that the Government of the United States isn't acting under the Bible's teachings; they need to let it go. Just because the Government passes a law doesn't mean you have to *believe* in it, it doesn't change what you're allowed to preach SO FAR AS THE BIBLE GOES. You can't tell your congregation to lynch the gay couple downtown, because that does overstep legal boundaries; you *can* refuse an openly gay couple to make out in your pews on Sunday, because that's overstepping *your* bounds.

I don't feel 'finished'- I'm still really pissed about how STUPID people are being about this- but I don't know what else to say.