lol is it just me or does he sound just like a hillbilly?

Well, most priests you'll see are gay. So, go figure.

Religion: legitimatizing insanity since God knows when. :p

Why would you spout this drivel? I am genuinely curious. Is it a general hatred of Christianity and what they stand for, or is it just Perry and the people of Texas? Perry is on the same team as us. He wants America to be a better place. That is why I don't generally say that I hate Obama, just that he is stupid as all hell and that he has a messed up view of the world.

Perry on the other hand is a proponent of good business practices, leads one of the top states in terms of business opportunity, and is calling for unity and good will in a time of ill consumer sentiment. Compared to other feel good things that other politicians promote in their official capacities that do similarly little real levels of good, and without the spending, Id say that this is a cost effective way of inspiring people to look towards a better future.

In other news, athiests bitch and moan about religious people saying a quiet prayer and try and help.

Now Anthony, you are not being politically correct. Let's work on that buddy.

I was raised Christians and I hate them more than anything else now. So obnoxious, pick up some literature or philosophy and think for yourself for once. How can you believe something that has no evidence of ever existing? Just blows my mind that people so generally except something without actually thinking about what it is, who made it and why they think they even need it. I mean, does it really even make any sense? You don't have to be religious to be a good person last time I checked.

I didn't even say that. But honestly I don't even care what two other people want to do. Doesn't affect me at all. I don't care if they were born that way, or they choose to be gay. I really couldn't care less. Also I wasn't even referring specifically to gay marriage, but it doesn't make a difference. It doesn't do anything to society so it shouldn't make a difference what anyone thinks anyways.

I talked to God. He said he is busy with Somalia right now.

When it comes to civil rights, US is pretty low down the list for developed nations, maybe even bottom of it. Pretty pathetic really

The problem is you can't pick and choose. I am a confirmed Roman Catholic and think in general Christianity teaches good values, but I am not dumb enough to take the bible literally and cherry pick things out of it to support a bigoted viewpoint. The bible also says you shouldn't eat shellfish nor wear a blended fabric, lets be real here man.

What? Lots of couples marry and don't have kids, many can't for medical reasons. Gay couples adopt kids that straight people produce and either can't take care of or don't want. How is this hurting society?

You don't make any sense. Are you trying to say that legalizing gay marriage is going to decrease the population because more people will be gay, therefore producing less people? Come on, Europe's population is declining all across the board, not in just pro gay countries. Why is a natural decline in population a bad thing? You'd rather people over populate? That is how disease, famine, and war start. Also, the average person uses natural the same amount of natural resources in 1 year that it takes the planet 1.3 years to reproduce. So do the math on that, population explosion is not a good thing. There are already concerns about feeding the world in the short term.

Also, I think you should completely disregard what is written in the Bible, considering the fact that it was written by MAN. Christianity in itself was started by Constantine to united his pagan empire, not because God decided to publish his views on religion and creationism.

Another thing is that people reproduce whether they are married or not. So don't worry about population decreases. And today, on average 50% of couples get divorced, so there is really no sanctity in it today anyhow. Doesn't make sense what you are saying. By allowing gay marriage, society is not Promoting it, just allowing it.

@seabird You see declining birth rates in Western industrialized countries because having kids sucks, not to put too fine a point on it. The poor and miserable can have kids willy-nilly and not take any appreciable lifestyle hit; wealthy and educated people, on the other hand, take an enormous lifestyle hit by having kids, and in most cases never recover. This doesn't have anything to do with "traditional values", this is all about people getting to a place where they enjoy their life and being smart enough to realize that having kids will bring it all crashing down.

And if your inclination is to point out that this country or that country will just vanish off the map without replacement birth rates, my question to you would be, "Who cares?"

Not biologically viable

-> can't produce offspring -> lineage is 100% optional and reduced to a legal construct -> conversely, are all family parameters subject to law? -> Is it wise to replace an ancient basis of relationships with a few legal posits? -> terrible ethical implications -> but somehow I'm not offended by gay marriage

And for the record, fuck Rick Perry, he's a twit

Freakonomics, abortion (less kids) theoretically the cause and affect of large decrease in crime rates during the mid/late 90s.

@ In the Flesh
I agree. I am far left and will admit intolerance of alot of things. Religion being one, bc even though it may have good values, I do believe that almost every war on earth has had a religion as a prominent part of its happening or justifications. But also there really is no such thing as tolerance. it is a logical paradox

This is what you don't get, the way people behave is their own damn fault. If a guy is a predatory asshole who will only behave if a woman is controlling him then perhaps that guy needs some therapy and to re-evaluate the kind of life he is living.

Who are you to say what relationships are legitimate? You don't seem to understand that gay people have the exact same type of attraction that heterosexuals do, it just happens to be to someone of the same sex. How would you feel if some religious group is denouncing the way you feel about someone?

And you cannot compare a gay couple wanting to get married (and perhaps even wanting to adopt kids) to single mothers in the ghetto popping out kids with different guys. The only people who have destroyed the sanctity of marriage is straight people, don't kid yourself.

And legitimizing through law only the one relationship type is how people express their preferences. We could remove all laws about stealing, and say that it is up to people to behave correctly. It wont turn out that way though. Look at marxism. It could have worked, but it just doesn't. Same thing with marriage. Societies that promote the married man/woman relationship succeed, and ones that don't fail.

Just so you know, the U.S. is currently dealing with overpopulation.

As a libertarian, I can never understand why people care so much about what other, random people do.

Also, so are you saying society should only legitimize relationships where the people can reproduce? Lots of straight couples can't for medical reasons. The other issue is their preferences are most of the time being driven by religious teachings that have absolutely no practical real world implications. They are for all intents and purposes completely made up.

Eh, for me, the gay marriage thing is a mental excercise [it doesn't matter now, and it is being legalized], but as for the prayer thing: I don't have a problem with it. As long as they come up with good reasons to back their preferences, they're fine. When ANYONE, political or not, comes out and tries to boss me around "because god says so" they're not fooling anyone and I don't want to hear it.

Some people have the religion in them, others don't....but I'm looking more at the behavior than the belief system.

You are comparing apples to oranges buddy. Theft is an illegal act against society and you are comparing that to gay marriage? The legalization of gay marriage is not a voting choice, it is a legislational problem dealing with the actual way that marriage is described constitutionally. Not whether or not people voted for it. And its not a matter of promotion, I'm pretty sure that countries that accept both types of relationships are pretty successful. Gay marriage is not the bane of any society and people will be gay whether or not gay marriage is legalized. You are denying a group of people civil rights due to your own discretions of marriage. 100 years ago, people would have said the same thing about inter racial marriages. Denying people rights is very regressive as a society and creates an unseccessful society in itself through division.

Lets get one thing correct here marriage is a legal contract with the US Government for purpose of taxation and ownership rights. The contract gives you a different tax status if you chose and legally binds your assets together from that point Onward.

That's it in a nutshell folks. All this arguing about birthrates and God and "moral fiber" shouldn't matter for the purpose of getting a marriage license.

As conservatives we want smaller government and greater freedoms. Gay marriage seems to jive with that statement.

Seabird - I really don't understand why you think a high fertility rate is such a fantastic thing. As far as I care, let people fuck animals and plants. How does it affect me in any meaningful way? As long as they aren't finger blasting their dog in the park while I'm running, I don't give a shit.

Wow, are you being serious? Sex outside marriage is a non-American tradition? I am afraid I might be feeding a troll now.