sorry i keep talking politics, but this whole issue of gay marriage is so interesting to me. i'm still in the middle of trying to formulate my own opinion - i know, against popular belief, i do believe that gay marriage is against the Bible - yet what bothers me a lot is the way that Christians judge the gay population, because that is just as wrong. Here's what John MacArthur said, a pastor at my old church in LA, talking to Larry King:

"PASTOR JOHN MACARTHUR, OPPOSES SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: Well, I think there a number of things that we need to talk about. One is, it would destroy the family. I mean, obviously, God designed the family to be a man and woman to produce a child. It is the DNA, it's the genetic structure of civilization. If you don't have that, you don't have civilization. So you're striking at the very core of its existence.

KING: But what does the state have to do with that? God can do it, and as a religious person, you can practice it, but why should the state be involved in a marriage?

MACARTHUR: Well, typically, the state is always involved -- always been involved in a marriage and I think -- because the state's responsibility is to uphold what is right, to uphold righteousness. I mean, it's in the fabric of human thinking to understand a man and a woman make a marriage and a family. God has put that in the very thinking. It's in the heart. It's there. The state upholds that standard, always has in every state in every factor of human history.

KING: Do you favor civil unions? The president said that should be left up to the states.

MACARTHUR: Yes. Gay and lesbian people can do that whenever they want. They can do that in this culture or any other culture. But they don't have the right to determine marriage for a whole nation.

KING: So it's the marriage aspect -- if the state wants to pass civil unions are OK, to give rights...

MACARTHUR: Right. We're talking about two things, Larry.

KING: OK.

MACARTHUR: We're talking about an issue of civil union. That's a civil issue. If you ask me about whether it's moral or whether it's right, then it becomes a biblical issue.

KING: That might come up later.

MACARTHUR: But a civil issue -- sure, they have a right to make a relationship, if they want."