The "Sanctity of Marriage"

President Bush uses sanctity in regards to marriage. Sanctity means holiness. Holiness is the business of churches. I think churches should be allowed to do whatever they want about marriage. If the Catholic Church wants to not perform or recognize gay marriage so be it. If the Southern Baptist Conference wants to allow same then so be that too.

States should only be permitted to allow or disallow only7 civil marriages.

The federal government should stay the fuck out of it.....

they do "sanctity of life." It's all good, as long as they get to decide what version of reality to "sanctify."

However, marriage is a legal action, sanctioned by the state. Weddings are done by civil or church authorities. That's why they have marriage licenses.

I've attended relatives' weddings in Italy and in Chile. In both, the couple had to have a civil union/wedding for it to be "legal". Then, they both chose to have a religious wedding for it to be religiously blessed.

They could've obtained only the civil union/wedding and dispensed with the religious and it would still have been "legal". However, if they've skipped the civil union/marriage then it would not have been "legal".

"Legal" here means according to the state with all the civil rights and responsibilities.

Leave sacred, holy, sacrement of marriage for religous ceremonies. I have been married for 32 years. I do not consider it "sacred" or "holy". President George W. Bush has no right to tell me or my husband what OUR marriage is.

We, the couple invloved, define what our relationship is, not government, and not religion.

as a senator, a senator's son, and Clinton's VP with what he has come to understand and believe in the past four years . . . (which, imo, is substantial) . . .

Al knows that if he runs, one thing he MUST do is tell the truth -- at least as he honestly perceives it . . . that perception is necessarily colored (more like dyed) by his upbringing as a child of privilege and his prior service in the Senate and as VP . . . he's a politician who was raised and mentored by politicians -- a large portion of whose time, energy and ingenuity is devoted to finding creative ways to NOT tell the truth . . . and creative ways to talk and say absolutely nothing . . .

essentially, Gore's heart is telling him one thing, his brain another . . . (imo, of course) . . .

which one he will ultimately choose to guide his actions (and their extent) is what many of us are waiting to find out . . . (doing pretty well so far, imo) . . .