[gogogodzilla]

Marriage has always in the history of civilization, had recognition by the state, whatever kind of government large or small. This is natural. Married couples have their own status which is different from single people or dependent children.

Recognition is different than the regulation/definition of marriage.

And I'm not seeing any conservative movement to simply have the government recognize marriage. Heck, Proposition 8 in California was a flat-out *DEFINITION* of marriage codified into state constitutional law. That's dangerous to do, for you are placing the control of marriage into the hands of politicians. (Heck, now that precedence has been set, just wait until the loony left give it a go. Wait, they already are.)

If we were serious about returning to the original intent of marriage, we'd be campaigning hard for your original statement... that the only role government has is recognition of marriage. Which then would mean that government would not have the power to conduct *ANY* marriage at all. No more court-clerk marriages. No more government marriage certificates.

You'd submit proof of marriage to the government, who'd then simply grant a recognition of marriage claim. And that's a *MAJOR* difference, for the former denies you a marriage without government approval... while the latter is a 'ex post facto' statement of past action.

That would return all marriages to religion. And if you can find a religion that'll marry gays... well, I'm thinking that's going to be pretty hard to do.

[little jeremiah]

You’re irrational. The definition of marriage is written in every cell in every male and female body. It is irrefutable, unchangeable Natural Law.

It is the perverts and their helpers who want to artifically change the meaning or definition of marriage, and conseravtives are just playing defense and catchup.

One can by law or judicial decision artificially change the definition of marriage to mean two men, two women or whatever and it has as much reality and common sense and truth as changing the definition of water to “a dry powder”.

[fwdude]

If the government recognizes marriage, then it must, by necessity, define exactly what marriage is in order to do this. This is only common sense. A universal understanding of what marriage is has held sway for millennium, making official codification unnecessary, until the anarchist thugs gained a measure of control in the courts and legislatures. Now, sadly, we must define up, down, black, white, in, out, etc. All casualties of political correctness.