Steve Chapman makes a good point in his article about same sex marriage. This proposal recently won in Washington state, but lost in Maine. Is it because the 2 states take a different stance on this? Chapman doesn't think so. He thinks it's because Washington called it "domestic partnership" while Maine called it "same sex marriage." As it turns out, it's not the idea of treating gay couples equally that bothers Americans; it's calling it a marriage. Call it a civil union, a domestic partnership, or whatever, and many are fine with giving gay couples the same legalities as married heterosexual couples. Go figure.
Once again, this just goes to show how important the use of words is.
You can go for separation of church and state. Have civil marriages which are the legally binding ones that qualify the couple for civil rights, privileges, and tax status. Then allow for optional religious marriages, where the church of your choice (or not) can dictate who marries whom, how long it takes to get a divorce (if any), what the children of such a marriage are to be named, etc.
A vast difference between a civil partnership and a civil marriage is that a civil marriage almost always contains religious aspects during the marriage. The word marriage is a religious word in itself. Additionally, a clergy can perform civil marriages, whereas only specified registrars can perform a civil partnership
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
It certainly started out as a religious term, but has since been secularized. I'd be happy calling all civil marriages, civil partnerships, but not everybody would agree with me. The point is there was a time when civil and canon law were intermingled, but in a modern, secular, pluralistic state there really isn't room for privileging one religious definition of marriage over another. Do we go with Catholic or Orthodox Jewish law regarding divorce? Do we go with Sharia or Billy Bob's Apocalyptic Church of Dominoes? The thing is for the state to legislate what a civil marriage, union, partnership, what have you, is, and then let the churches sort things out on their own with their constituents. In a way, we already do this. Catholics cannot get a divorce and marry again within their church, by its laws. Any Catholic is perfectly free (except gay Catholics) to get married by the state.
