by Luke Mcclure

Created on: December 14, 2008

The government should not have any role marriage. In the United States, marriage began as a religious ideology, a view of a monogamous, lifelong relationship between a man and a woman. The government initially sought to promote the aforementioned definition of marriage because in the beginning Christian values and ideas where widely accepted. The founding fathers of the United States did not have the foresight to predict any contradiction in having proclaimed a right to freedom of religion, and then providing tax breaks for an idea that is traditionally religious.

Perhaps early political founders did not realize that the mainstream cultural (predominantly Christian) values and views would change or be challenged by other views. Perhaps they, when they penned the words "freedom of religion", where thinking only of the right to practice different versions and views within Christianity. It is doubtful that they considered religions which practiced human sacrifice when they wrote this statement in the constitution.

It is because they did not presume these challenges, and because they began the practice of promoting one religious viewpoint; that we have so many problems today with what is to be recognized as marriage. By recognizing civilly what was originally defined by the mainstream religious values of the Church, government has (perhaps unintentionally) promoted one religion's definition of marriage. Our government's definition of marriage has come under scrutiny by those who fundamentally disagree with this religious majority.

Furthermore, by making marriage a tax issue, government has financially supported the majority religion's view of marriage. This financial support in the form of tax breaks for those that meet the legal definition of marriage, promotes and benefits the majority religion, and provides them with an advantage over opposing views.

Government has interjected itself into what should be a religious matter, or a matter of personal choice. It has put itself in a situation were today after centurys of supporting one main view, it is being asked to redefine marriage more openly, and challenged as to what it will recognize as valid. This fact has offended both the majority traditional view of marriage and those minority views of marriage.

Those with traditional religious views feel offended that government is the institution that gets to now define marriage for our society. If opposing views on marriage are recognized by government, to them, it would

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