IN THEORY:

While hearing arguments on a legal challenge to Proposition 8, Supreme Court Justice Ming W. Chin raised the issue of the state licensing or recognizing private, contractual civil unions with all the benefits of marriage, allowing the couples to go to a religious or private institution to confirm the vows. The judge asked would that eliminate the legal difference between Proposition 8 and the California Supreme Court ruling approving gay marriage? Do you think this would be an acceptable solution to the dispute?

The two-tier system of marriage and covenant union will not be successful because it is emotionally and spiritually unsatisfying. The intent of covenant unions is to separate the legal from the spiritual.

But marriage is not ultimately about rights, privileges, or responsibilities. Jesus performed his first public miracle at a wedding — turning bad water into awesome wine — because both the gospel and marriage are about transformation. Marriage is the word we use to describe when a love becomes so deep that the lives of the partners are so entwined they cannot live well without the other.

Marriage is a public event celebrating honoring and confirming a spiritual and soul-altering transformation. I wonder if the solution lies not in the legal arena but in the places where heart and soul meet. As the Bible says, “God is love, and those who love know God.”

Pastor Mark Wiley

Mesa Verde United Methodist Church

Costa Mesa

I firmly believe that separate but equal is simply not equal. If the state chooses to eliminate marriage and replace all unions with civil unions, leaving marriage to religion, then I think that response is fair and equal.

This would leave it up to religious institutions to decide who they would authorize marriages for and who they would not. So, if heterosexual couples and homosexual couples both apply for civil unions from the state and receive licenses to be united but are not married by state standards that is perfectly acceptable to me. From that point couples can decide whether or not they would choose to be married by a religious officiant or simply be satisfied with a civil union.

However, if the state is going to continue to offer marriage licenses for heterosexuals and begin offering civil-union licenses for homosexuals, then I cannot affirm this as acceptable or equal. For the same reason that the proponents of Proposition 8 feel that marriage is sacred, so too do those of us believe that marriage is sacred no matter what orientation the couple. Being granted the same benefits of marriage is a step, an important one, but equality will not be had until marriage is restored for all couples. Until then, we will not be satisfied with second-class citizenship.

My religious freedom to marry couples who are deemed prepared for marriage by the standards of my faith is not honored when I am only able to marry heterosexual couples. In my faith, we don’t pick and choose who is more equal and who is less than. The state should see all citizens as equal and honor each union the same way regardless of orientation.

The Rev. Sarah Halverson

Fairview Community Church

Costa Mesa

Justice Chin’s suggestion would get California out of the marriage business completely and encourage all of us to communicate effectively about both legal rights and sacred commitments.

I advocate clergy ceasing to act as agents of our state, signing civil License and Certificate of Marriages as the “Person Solemnizing Marriage.”

As a person under Holy Orders, my calling and responsibility is to officiate and preside at the rites of the church. These include traditional resources like “The Form for Solemnization of Holy Matrimony” and “The Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage” and newly approved liturgies for blessing a “life-long covenant.” Sacramental covenants and “contractual civil unions” are different.

Of course, following Justice Chin’s wisdom would mean that we would have to stop fighting about how to define “marriage,” and we seem to enjoy such fighting ... too much!

(The Very Rev’d Canon) Peter D. Haynes

Saint Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church