Separation of Church and State is failing, even though it's not part of U.S. Constitution.

Recently a lot of things have been legalized.

Probably the biggest one is same sex marriage.

My opinion on that is the argument for allowing this is for legal rights not religious ones.

So why does the legal changes need to Marriage exist?

Marriage was, until around 1700's, only available from clergy and that union had to meet the requirements of the religion the people belonged to.

For me, the major legal change/definition of marriage is wrong.

If everyone wants to be legally recognized as "married" then all legal unions need to be recognized as that.

Unions.

Then if individuals want to have the final stamp of "Marriage" then it should happen through whatever method/place they like. Church, Synagogue, Temple, Mosque, etc. etc.

Some religions have very sacred rights that can only be performed by it's worthy members, based on that religion's standards.

If a religion deems same sex relations & interactions as a sin, then individuals who participate in those activities would be excluded.

My big fear with this "legal" definition of marriage being changed is that it will open the doors for more lawsuits and changes will actually break the "separation of church and state".

It means that the Government can then dictate what a church can and can't do.

Where's the separation now?

This is why so many Pilgrims fled to the New World.

The fled a place where religion was dictated by the government and where religion dictated the government.

In the U.S. Constitution, the Government was supposed to stay out of religion, while there was also not supposed to be a Government ruled by religion.

This did not mean that different states, towns, etc. could not be have a large populate of a single religion.

It meant that the U.S. Government would not be ruled by a single domination or establish its own theological/state religion.

While I will tend to vote and think like others that I attend church with, while others do the same.  This has always happened and continues to happen.

There is nothing wrong with this.

This happens both outside and inside religions.

Or how members of labor unions will often vote how the rest of labor union votes.

The term "Separation of Church and State" does NOT exist anywhere in the U.S. Constitution or other legal government documents!

It is from a letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists! (http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/danpre.html)

I found the following article interesting in this matter, which if you want to read, is located here:
http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=123

Of myself, I do not personally endorse any of links presented here, only that they contain information and history of the items that I discussed.

Wrapping this up, I feel that we need to keep the separation of church and state what it really is.  Keep the government from dictating what religion should do and keeping religion from establishing a church state.

Thus keeping religious freedoms what they are.

After all, if all of those who teach from the Bible and honor it as the Holy Words from God, why are there so many different religious denominations?