This is an editorial written by Kathleen Parker and in some of our newspapers on Saturday. An editorial is just that, one person's viewpoint, but I thought that it gives us cause for pause.  It is titled 'church, state in historic clash':

    As the U.S. Senate prepares to vote in a couple of weeks on whether to consider a constitutional ban on gay marriage. Americans are curiously quiet even though a majority oppose gay marriage.

    A nationwide Gallup Poll last month found that 55% oppose same sex marriage (down from 65% in December) and 42% in favor (up from 31% in December)......

    Whatever one may think of homosexual marriage in the abstract, the idea that a redefinition of marriage will have "no effect" is laughable, but not funny. After the nosegay has faded, the issue is neither solely about love nor affirmation, but about serious legal consequences that all Americans may wish to consider before tuning out preachers and embracing gay activists....

    Of particular concern even for the nonreligious is the effect gay marriage could have on two of our founding principles:  religious freedom and freedom of speech. Once the courts recognize gay marriage as equal in all ways to heterosexual marriage, then everyone else -- including churches -- has to recognize gay marriage as equal too.

    Any opposition will be deemed hateful by definition, and anyone who opposes gay marriage will be a hatemonger. Given that many religions and denominations teach that homosexuality is a sin, church attendance alone could suggest you're homophobic. To the extent that one believes or preaches scripture, one is a bigot.

    Hence some of the deep concern among legal professionals, as well as theologians, A secular world that ratifies homosexual marriage would provide a legal foundation that would open the floodgates to civil litigation against religious leaders, institutions, and worshippers.

    In such an environment, churches might be sued for declining to provide their sanctuaries for gay marriages, for example. Ministers could be sued for hate speech for giving a sermon on moral behavior. Churches that protest homosexual unions could face revocation of their tax exemption status....

    Either we believe in separation of church and state of we don't, but you can't have it both ways.

    The July 12 debate is really a discussion about "cloture" - the process by which the Senate puts a time limit on filibuster, thereby allowing a bill to be voted on. In this case, 60 senators have to vote in favor of cloture for the Federal Marriage Amendment, defining marriage as between one man and one woman, to go to the floor.

    Many senators prefer to delay voting rather than make their position public before the November election. But advocates for the amendment predict that November may be too late, that if President George W. Bush loses re-election, the amendment will be dead and marriage as we know it will be history.