Something that seems to me to be almost totally lost in the most discussions of flavors of marriage as we currently accept it is that marriage is BOTH a religious contract AND a civil law contract. Any religion may choose to marry whomever it chooses within the confines of that religion. The problem comes in when CIVIL authorities assign LEGAL aspects to marriage.

If the jack-booted government thugs would remove themselves from the marriage loop, then people could marry as they choose within their own faiths, and form their own civil contracts including or excluding whatever paragraphs they choose, relating to all financial issues, parenthood, health care, and so on. It is the GOVERNMENT'S MEDDLING in marriage that is the problem. Once we separate the religious from the legal, the discussion takes an entirely different shape.

Saul