Is gay marriage debate a church-state issue?

Christian Century, Sept 6, 2003 by Robert Marus

Gay couples can have children through adoption or artificial insemination, gay-rights groups argue, and legalizing marriage would actually promote public health by encouraging long-term, monogamous relationsldps.

Meanwhile, added Stanford's Karlan, politicians who use sacramental language to defend marriage as an institution only for heterosexuals are not helping their cause. "The more they say that the reason they want to ban samesex marriage is because it's a violation of a sacrament," the law professor said, "then the harder it is to say that there is a secular purpose [behind the law]."

Acknowledging that heterosexuals have done plenty to violate the sanctity of marriage themselves, Sprigg said redefining the institution to include same-sex couples would be a deathblow to marriage. "Why would we want to do more to damage an already damaged and fragile institution?" he asked.