Why not, Civil Unions?

The real problem with the Gay Marriage issue is that Marriage is a
religious institution. It has deep roots in the bible. Many
organized religions have very specific ideals on marriage. The issue
we face today is not simply equal rights as many liberals would have
you believe. But in fact it's about rights of the church. Many angry
gays who just want revenge on the religious community for their
treatment wish to force the issue of marriage onto the church. I did
say many, not ALL. There are plenty of gay people who would be happy
to simply have equal treatment in all 50 states namely the ability to
share their lives with a chosen mate and to share the same privileges
and tax incentive as well.

Gays deserve to get all the same privileges and I think most people
are with me on this one. I don't think there are many folks saying
otherwise. The real fear here is that once they get "marriage" it
will only be a few minutes before some wild activist couple will walk
into a Catholic Church and say, "marry us". The Catholic Church will
of course say no, and then the next step will be a lawsuit claiming
discrimination based on sex. This is where the issue lies. We can't
let those in the gay community who wish to force churches into
accepting gay marriage win.

Now those who support gay marriage argue that they don't want to
change marriage they only want to add to it. The issue here again is
that marriage is at its root a religious institution that has become
as generic as the facial tissue, "Kleenex". The problem is that many
years ago people who wanted to be together but did not want to belong
to a church went to the courthouse and got "MARRIED" The Government
decided that they were going to issue "Marriage" certificates. What
they should have done was to recognize that the State had no right in
the Marriage business. They should have issued some sort of Civil
Union Certificate from the very beginning to all people who did not
want to get joined by the Church.

It seems to me that the only answer here to make all happy is for the
government to come up with a Civil Union for all people and assign a
certificate that gives the legally binding side of the arrangement and
then allow each church to grant marriages as they see fit. This would
ease the tension for those who defend the churches right to protect
their traditional values at the same time it gives Homosexuals the
same legal rights as Heterosexuals.