ind it extremely distasteful and threaten banishment or eternity in a river of flames as consequences. And while this is the most applied law, it stands still unclear. The bible calls homosexuality an “abolishment”, but also says, “Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve…nothing is unclean in itself; but unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean” (Romans 14:13-13). Also, when Americans were told that they would have freedom of religion, does not that sanctify freedom from religion as well? People wanting to engage in same sex marriage are not asking for all religions to accept their vows. They ask merely for tolerance and the ability to recite them so that they mean something, legally. They ask for simple civil equality in the “pursuit of happiness” (Jefferson 200) among themselves, the United States citizens.A dispute that frequently appears in court over same-sex marriage is the question of what marriage is in it's self. Marriages exist in many forms that cannot fit into a universal mold. There are relationships consisting of one man and numerous women called polygamy. Relationships with one woman and many men called “polyandry”(Halsall 1). Some are age dissonant with a full-grown man marrying a woman when she is around thirteen years old and some are closer in age but the two have never met before. “In China, one man has a chief wife with subordinate wives and concubines” (1). Lastly, there is the “modern norm” when one man and one woman marry because they are in love. This is called a “companionate marriage” (1). These marriages have five things in common, “Domestic cohabitation, communal recognition, customary rules of conduct, some sort of ceremonial inception, and an extension in time” (1). Only in America and Western Europe do three more commonalties truly exist: “Emotional commitme...
