The Irish laws about marriage and divorce are secular, because they do have some protestants there. I think a compromise by allowing a "civil union" to the gays and even to straights "living together" but not having children. I think when they decide to have children, then marriage should be a must to allow for proper normal raising of children. Children raised by both natural parents are far less likely to get into teen trouble, and to end up being normal productive adults.
I am a protestant, but I think the Eastern Orthodox church in "closer" to the Bible than the Catholic church. They allow their priests to marry, and they baptise by immersion. Catholics baptised by immersion until the 1100's when one of the Pope's said you didn't have to be. The word baptise comes from the Greek word baptizo, which means "to immerse".
I also think a lot of the divorce laws were liberalised after the hippy movement of the 60's. If children are involved, it should be taken far more seriously. Also, adultry can be forgiven, it would be hard, but if the guilty party shows genuine remorse, it can be dealt with. Money problems shouldn't even be an issue. If that is a problem, maybe going to a financial counselor would be in order to hold the family together. I have seen some people loose jobs, and almost everything, but still stay together and work it out. You know, you can get by without electricity and all modern conveniences. They did it for all of history until the 20th century. Self sufficiency is almost a lost art in America. It should be a goal, not dependence on the "grid".
Back to gay marriage, like someone said, being gay is ALL about sex. Marriage to the right woman or man normally is far beyond just sex. It is about companionship and balance. Seeing a situation from a womans and a mans perspective balances out the marriage. With a strong normal family life, you have children, you also have parents. I see the wisdom of asking parents advise as a young person. They are full of life's experiences to draw this wisdom from. Parents take care of and raise their children to be responsible and productive adults. Children take care of elderly parents. This helps cut costs for nursing homes, assisted living, and day care when you have children. Extended families taking care of each other keeps the burden off society and out of our pockets with excessive taxes. Getting back to normal is what should be strived for. It has worked for centuries.
My wife had a gay uncle that lived with a guy until he died. Her uncle was the far greatest provider. He was a writer for a large city newspaper. Anyway, this other guy didn't provide that much in the way of finances. Neither had children. Her uncle died and left everything to this other guy in a will. The other guy blew it all on wild living and now he is in a nursing home at taxpayer expense. This really ticks my wife off, because her and several of her cousins helped take care of her uncle occationally before he died and didn't get anything. If he had a family, his "wife" and children, would have helped take care of him, and be rewarded from his assets he left. Weird suff, not normal.
I for one do not want anything legalised, that would raise my taxes, or use them in any way I would not approve off.
For instance, government funded abortions, government funded stem cell research, cloning, unnecessary wars, welfare for the able bodied, money and benefits for illegal aliens, the UN, foreign aid except for disaster relief, no selling of advanced weaponry to anyone. No trade with any nation that has fundimental conflicts of idealogy and morality with the US, especially if it benefits them but not us evenly.
