Your Opinion: Response to Ruprecht on gay marriage

Dear Editor:

I would like to respond to Mr. Ruprecht about his response to my original submission. While I agree a civil union marriages may be different in that they are not performed in a church setting. However, marriage between a man and a woman is still the way marriage was intended.

I am not judging anyone only the action. I have gay friends and I don't feel marriage is really what they are after. I believe they want the same rights that go with marriage such as insurance, leaving their estate, etc. I am waiting for the men and women living together to eventually request their rights to insure each other, leave their estates, etc. I know there are common law marriages, but they do not get the rights asked for by gays and lesbians.

I have not heard one time any reported stating the president is going or leaving church, yet he claims to have been raised Catholic, not Muslim, which I do not hate or despise someone for being any religion, but you would think in three years our president would have left a parish, mosque, or something.

Being a veteran of the US Army makes me a little more aware of what was happening when I was in the military, "Don't ask, don't tell." We worried about morale over this subject back then, and I do not think that is the right way to handle this issue either.

I do not go around to Heterosexual Pride Parades, but maybe we should start. Honestly, I just do not like where we are going as a nation. I know the United States of America was born out of religious freedom, but that meant no national church. But, since the ACLU has got involved and the interpretation was lost by the Supreme Court, people are using that to stop any religious belief due to offending someone. That offends me as a Christian.