Originally Posted by debateman

I think that state recognizing marriage, originally a religious institution, as marriage is a violation of the separation between church and state. The state is essentially taking religious institutions and making them part of the states' operations. Only by removing the word marriage from the law will we achieve the balance between church and state we should seek. Keeping the word marriage in the law allows the pendulum to swing too far yet again. The pendulum swung too far by allowing marriage to become part of the legal system, but now it's swinging too far by the legal system redefining it. The religions should have the right to any special designation they want to give. The state should not.

Originally Posted by magicmaester

Again, Marriage wasn't orginally a religious, or at least certainly not christian institution! There was marriage in Rome when everyone was pagan.

Originally Posted by Zephyr

The State mustn't control the church and vice-versa. There's an argument not centered around religion. I'm completely for all the legal aspects of marriage applying to everyone. The religious part is the church's decision. (And by 'the church' I mean each individual church, not a religion as a whole.)