If you’re looking for a little Sunday afternoon reading, may I commend a couple of the comment sections from last week’s posts.  First, I point you to a robust conversation — particularly between Patrick and Bob — under my post, “The Five Biggest Problems Facing America.”

And secondly, Carla Jo left a comment that caused me to think more deeply about my current posts on marriage.  Her opener:

Okay, here’s something that’s been sticking with me over the course of this conversation. Let me start by saying I agree a billion percent with your thoughts on this. But here’s what I’m wondering. By not getting a legal marriage as well as a sacramental marriage, do straight couples unintentionally prove the point that the benefits of a legal marriage are not all that important?… [READ THE REST]

There’s been a pretty interesting discussion happening at the Washington Post website under the column that Lisa Miller wrote about my views — it was posted on Thursday and ran in the print edition on Saturday.  What’s interesting is that, in the print edition, it ran next to an article about how more and more couples are asking relatives and friends, rather than clergy, to officiate their wedding ceremonies.  That prompted this comment from laboo:

Huh? This commentary is so off-target in so many ways, it makes me wonder whether the writer even understands the process.

The state is the sole issuer of marriage licenses. Anyone properly authorized by the state can perform the marriage ceremony; the writer acknowledges this. (And, as a companion article points out, the Unitarians have a quick path to obtaining state authorization…)

Nothing can compel Tony Jones, or any other minister, to marry any individuals. Pastors often turn down requests for weddings, for numerous and varied reasons. Usually this is on a case-by-case basis, but Jones is well within his authority (and moral right) to take the position he does. It’s not as if he’s in any way frustrating the rights of others to get married. There’s always the non-inclusive church down the block, or the justice of the peace.

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Eminent religion columnist Lisa Miller has written about, and disagreed with, my stance on marriage in the Washington Post:

It isn’t exactly a movement, more of a blogosphere hubbub.

In solidarity with his gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, one well-known evangelical pastor in Minneapolis is taking a stand. As long as his state won’t confer upon homosexuals the legal right to marry, Tony Jones won’t sign a marriage license. He will officiate at a Christian ceremony, what he calls the “sacramental” part of marriage. But he refuses to act as an agent of the state.

via Separation of church and state in marriage? – The Washington Post.