Proposition 8

The state should be out of the marriage business altogether. Civil marriage used to regulate sexual expression, but for the past half-century it has served only to regulate property. Civil marriage is NOT marriage for an Orthodox Christian under any circumstances and people need to be clear about this. People wonder when their children are surprised that they cannot marry say, an unbaptized person or a cousin, in the Orthodox Church when it is permitted by civil law. We need to make clearer distinctions between civil \\"marriage\\" and Orthodox marriage. I worry that some of these political campaigns are actually obscuring the nature of Christian marriage. I repeat: every Orthodox Christian needs to understand clearly that civil marriage properly has no relationship to religious marriage.

Thimios, I\'ve never seen this letter from the Bishops (outside of here). Where did you find it? I\'m disappointed that the Metropolis didn\'t distribute it via the normal e-mail distribution.

I reieved in a letter from my Priest. I do not now how public it was sent. It was also handed out at our Church.

hooray! it passed! Even if not many Californians are religious, at least they have a sense of right and wrong

Ah, but the judges, who now rule this great land, will overturn it. The suit has already been filed.

I don\'t think the above can be repeated enough. I generally wish there was no use of the word marriage in legal documents. On another note the Mormon church lost tax exempt status in California due to their monetary contributions.