Gay Marriage

The AFA suggests here that:

"Marriage is a covenant of companionship that is ordained by God."

Okay. If that is the case, then at what point in this process did the government of the United States get involved?

Our democratic system of government is founded, in part, on the principle of the separation of church and state. Why then, does our government ascribe any legal standing to these religious unions? Moreover, why does it issue marriage licenses and allow certain elected or appointed officials to perform secular marriages?

Then there's the concept of common-law marriage, which is a legally recognized, secular union based solely on a specified period of cohabitation. In the gay community, there have been a number of well publicized "palimony suits", for example between Billie Jean King and Marilyn Barnett, which are predicated on these same concepts.

I think the crux of the argument is simple: if our government establishes and recognizes secular marriages, then it has an obligation to do so for all of its citizens.