Here’s Larry Elder on marriage and gay marriage, proposing King Solomon’s solution: okay, we’ll cut the baby in half! One side wants gay marriage, the other side wants no gay marriage — let’s have no marriage at all!
I have begun to think that this is the only consistent position for the supporters of current marriage rules to take. Certainly I would expect that if same-sex marriage becomes state-sanctioned, religious groups who strongly oppose same-sex marriage will refuse to perform civil marriages. Perhaps they won’t — perhaps, like the case of rubella vaccine, made possible by tissue taken from an aborted fetus, the church will weasel and take both positions, claiming that gay marriage is wrong but still acting for the state in certifying opposite-sex marriages.
Certainly there is a political risk in refusing to conduct civil marriages: many people may leave the church over it. (But haven’t they left already?)