by Zach Bigalke

Created on: May 31, 2007   Last Updated: January 19, 2009

The argument that we should legislate based on a sectarian piece of two-millennium-old literature is astoundingly absurd. Marriage has already lost its sacrament with the ease and frequency of the divorce process. When a man and woman, entering this "sacred institution", fail to recognize the uniqueness of what they are doing, then I believe it is time to turn that right over to someone who might actually appreciate this freedom.

Using the Bible to determine the path of a modern nation is like using a Model T owner's manual to try to fix a Maserati. Our freeedoms as a society at large are deteriorated when we permit our representatives to represent their personal religious beliefs before their entire constituency. The Bible is a perfectly-good book by which to guide one's personal life; it is offensive to think that our government would try to impose sectarian dogma on non-Christians such as myself.

Let us return some sanctity to marriage. Our outdated arguments as a country sink us closer to a complete obliteration of our secular ideals. If we wish to fight the Taliban and other extremist religious governments, we must first eliminate these inequal traits within ourselves. A great start is by allowing any two loving people of age to take the final step toward realizing and announcing that love - spiritually and legally.

Because that is the real argument. Most religious institutions are too bigoted to accept two guys in tuxedos staring longingly into each other's eyes, but our government is supposed to be more tolerant than that. Denying legal rights such as joint home ownership, hospital visitation rights and estate inheritance to a couple of long standing is discrimination. If we were to deny these rights to heterosexual couples, the gates of the Capitol would be tumbling as I type. It makes me sick to think that bigots and discriminators in the mold of Matthew Shepard's killers are allowed to legislate freely based on their own morality, ignorant to the rights and desires of a large section of the population.

I would rather see two men or two women, after a long relationship where love has blossomed and a connection has been forged, joining together in matrimony than two scared-shitless kids at an altar because that abstinence-only education backfired...

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