US OPPOSES HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE...IN CHURCH?

A new poll finds that a majority of Americans oppose blessing gay unions:

SO BROAD AND DEEP is this opposition that nearly half of all Americans who regularly attend worship services say they would leave their current church if their minister blessed gay couples-even if their denomination officially approved those ceremonies, the survey found.

As courts, companies and congregations across the nation consider what standing to give gay couples, the poll demonstrates strong public disapproval of any religious sanctioning of same-sex relationships. It underscores the sharp distinction most Americans make between relationships blessed by the church and those recognized by the law.

But, the news story tells us, the opposition is often based on having the union church related:

Julio Rincon, 28, an infrequent churchgoer in Albany, N.Y., said he would not mind if a gay couple registered a civil union “down at City Hall.” But, he said, “I do have a problem if it were to take place in a church.”

This is a common attitude, and shows a common bifurcation in the minds of many between marriage in general and religion. This is the reason why our divorce rate--and shack-up rate--runs rampant. We have lost any notion of the holiness of marriage. Whether the judge or the minister says "man and wife", you're still married all the same.

There was other encouraging news:

The poll also found, however, that public acceptance of same-sex civil unions is falling. Fewer than four in 10 — 37 percent-of all Americans say they would support a law allowing gay men and lesbians to form civil unions that would provide some of the rights and legal protections of marriage.

That is a precipitous, 12-point drop in support found in a Gallup Organization survey that posed the question in identical terms in May, before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas law against sodomy and Justice Antonin Scalia argued in his dissent that the court was on a slippery slope toward legalizing gay marriage.

I hate that it's come to this, but it's time to strike while the iron's hot and pass a marriage amendment.