if Gays are allowed to legally marry, do you think the church should be mandated to perform wedding ceremony'

Question

I have wondered if Gay's who want to be *Married* actually want the church to sanctify thier unions.

Many states have laws in place that give gays' lawful rights regarding assets and health insurance. So what's the problem?

Biblically this is what is written:
This is a picture of marital intimacy... the act of love that is never to be between anyone else but the two of them. "...it is good for a man not to touch a woman, but because of immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband" (1 Corinthians 7:2,3).

What gays should have is a legal Union and Gay Marriage does not fit into the Church one bit.

Answer 1

No, no Christian church should marry a gay couple, under any circumstance.

Answer 2

Churches can't be required to perform gay weddings (First Amendment). I think most gays would be happy with civil unions, and if the right wing would stop attacking that, the problem would be much better solved. If the right wing would recognize that gays exists in the first place (I'm not saying that have to say it's moral or anything) it would stop the division that has sprung up over all of this, and the support of the general public is that gays should be able to get civil unions. Why should they be denied the right to see their partners when they are in intensive care or leave their belongings to their partners, etc. This is not a special favor that is being given to them. We give it to married couples, something that is a religious item.

Answer 3

Our constitutionally guaranteed right to separation of church and state works both ways. If it worked all the time, then the church wouldn't be able to meddle in the government, and the government wouldn't be able to meddle in the church.

Pay attention, though, because this is where it gets interesting. See, in attempting to ban gay marriage, the church is meddling in the government. Keeping gay people from marrying is a CHRISTIAN initiative, because there's no WORLDLY reason why they can't. Sooooo... when we as Christians try to call on "Separation of Church and State," to keep the government's hands off our places of worship, we have to remember that the rule has to work all the time or it's not a rule.

Answer 4

No, churches should not be required to perform or sanctify a marriage that goes against that church's doctrines.

There are some denominations of Christianity that aren't allowed to recognize or sanctify or attend weddings of other denominations of Christianity.

As much as you might wish it, marriage is NOT a "religious" institution. It is a LEGAL institution, and the Church only plays a role in it if the people who are getting married want it to.

If marriage were a religious institution, then atheists couldn't be married.

The problem with "domestic partner" laws is that there are over 1,000 FEDERAL rights and privileges that are extended to legal spouses and not to domestic partners. And to deny those rights to someone because your holy book says so is the epitome of religious discrimination.

Answer 5

No. It fringes on freedom of religion. Just because the state allows something doesn't mean that a religion has to sanction it. If a church believes in a definition of marriage that is narrower than the state's definition of marriage that is their right. Churches are voluntary associations. They're free to reprimand and even expel people for lifestyles they disagree within the confines of their organization. It's no different from PETA expelling a butcher. Discrimination laws only apply to public accomadations like restaurants and hotels not to churches.

Answer 6

No, a Church or any representative of any religion should not be compelled to go against its own beliefs. That being said, there's plenty of other places people can have a gay marriage ceremony done. And there are some churches that don't mind.

Answer 7

No church or minister in any state in the country is required to marry any couple that they choose not to marry. This is why racists are allowed not to marry mixed race couples, Catholics are not required to marry mixed faith marriages, and churches that disapprove of Gay marriage are never going to be required to conduct the ceremonies.

However, there are some churches (United Church of Christ, Unitarian Universalist, Metropolitan Community Church, some Episcopal Churches, etc.) that are quite willing to perform wedding ceremonies for same-gender couples.

Answer 8

of course churches only perform religious ceremonies. I don't think it matters what you call it BUT I will point out that the tax form says "Married" - if the church thought that was a sacred or religious term to be used only for church blessed marriages, they really should have spoken up a couple hundred years ago. To reclaim the term now just sounds petty.

Answer 9

So called gays are not gay at all but according to the Bible are reprobate. Why should any church marry a couple that were doing not only a sin against God but also a sin against nature. Romans 1: 26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: Romans 1: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. Romans 1: 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

Answer 10

The Church should be able to do what The Church Is called to do and stand on the word of God and In some areas the states are telling the church what to preace and how,In this country we used to have freedom of speach but that has come to be a thing of the past

Answer 11

Since our constitution is founded on 'separation of church and state', the answer would have to be No. Technically speaking, state's interests (local, state, or national government that makes laws) and religion's interests will not always be the same.