A match made in California

So I was reading about Prop 8 and the controversy it generated in California. What this ballot proposition did was redefine the meaning of the term "marriage" as a union between a man and a woman, thus eliminating the rights of homosexual men and women to marry in the state of California. Surprisingly, despite the supposed "open mindedness" of Californians, most of them voted in favor of this proposition.

What I fail to understand is this; how does it affect heterosexuals? Why would they vote for something which explicitly takes away an essential right from thousands of men and women? Allowing gay people to marry doesn't take away anyone else's right to wed. They just want what we have enjoyed and taken for granted for centuries. Enough has been said about such practices eroding family values and destroying the American way of life. How in the hell would family values be compromised if a man and another man decided to wed? Its not like they'd sneak into one of those "All American homes" (husband, wife, two kids and a dog) and then spring out and start sodomizing each other. I'll talk about the "American way" later.

What is marriage? Isn't it just a way of displaying the love and commitment that one person has for another. In a world filled with so much hate and meaningless violence, they would want to prevent people from expressing love?

The biggest culprit here is the church. Well, the people who run the church actually. According to them, the Bible states that engaging in homosexual relations is a sin. Well then the Bible also states that eating shell fish is a sin, and that one can stone his wife, sell off his daughter and keep slaves. Why don't they follow those aspects as well? Maybe they should use a bit of that brain God so graciously gave everyone. Doesn't the holy book state that it is not in the power of religious leaders to deny sacraments to people, who were made in God's image? And how can their act of preventing the spread of love and happiness be in tune with their God who is supposed to a representation of that very love?

Oh, and as for the "American way", the country came into existence as a form of rebellion because of a group's inability to accept the fact that Church and State were not separate entities in England at the time. So to revert back to this inane system, which their fore-fathers had so vehemently protested, is clearly a step in the wrong direction and is in fact contrary to everything their predecessors had fought for.

Its a sad state of affairs when someone's personal opinion becomes the law.