A Friend's Defense of Marriage

Recently I received a note from a friend where he shared with me something he had written in response to a question about same-sex marriage. I found his response very interesting and decided to share it here (I hope he doesn't mind). The reason why I decided to share his opinion was because he is not a professional or even a casual blogger. This is an opinion that should be shared.

"Marriage has been defined as between a man and a woman since this country started. The big issue is that homosexuals are trying to redefine marriage to include homosexual couples. No one is blocking their right to marry someone of the opposite sex as marriage dictates, but their effort to confuse what marriage really is. If the definition of marriage is changed to include same sex couples, this form of marriage will be preached in our public schools and by our government as equal to heterosexual marriage. Adoption agencies will be forced to allow homosexual couples to adopt children, ministers of all religions would be forced to marry gay couples even though it is against their beliefs, and many other huge legal ramifications will come as a result.

Legalizing gay unions is also the same thing as gay marriage, except the term marriage is not used. Traditional marriages performed by the justice of the peace were and are still called civil unions. The only difference between a union and marriage is that in unions the court marries you and for marriages a minister marries you. Legislators try to sell the union idea because people are less shocked by the label then when marriage is used. They also try to sell the idea that if homosexual unions take place, without the marriage title, that It will insulates schools from preaching homosexual marriage, and preachers from having to marry homosexual couples by force of law. This may be true for now, but can you see how the line between unions and marriage almost doesn't exist? How long do you think it would be before that fussy line doesn't exist and unions turn into fully legally recognized marriage? True, it’s anyone’s guess, but do you want to take the chance that your kids or grandkids will be confused about what marriage they should have? Please let’s not let it get that far."