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Church, State, and Marriage.
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The Philosoraptor raises a good point.
Before I even start on the subject, one quick point.
When Christ returns, all governments will be under God's overseeing.
So it will be impossible to separate Church and State at that point.
Anyways, I don't see how one can make the separation of church and state argument, but then say the government has the right to dictate what defines marriage to the church. If you're going to do non-faith based marriages, then do so by the state. But do not force church's to give in to state demands when it comes to their marriages.
Same thing with forcing church's to provide contraceptives and abortion related care. The church is the church. If it is truly separate from the state, then the state shouldn't force it to do things that defies it's faith and beliefs.
It may just be me, but it's not quite clear at first whether you are referring to the state's involvement in the registration of marriage or the state's involvement in the performing of marriage. I'll go with the second one.
I totally agree that the government should not be able to force churches to do anything contrary to their belief. If the church, however, is not legally registered as such, but is simply a building where believers gather once a week, then the government has no say from the get-go. It may be completely unconstitutional for the government to interfere with a church's procedures, but if the church doesn't officially exist, then the state can't do anything anyway (short of tearing down the building and putting people in prison). From that perspective, it's actually the church's fault for putting itself in the position of being able to be ordered about by the state. If a gay couple walked into an officially non-existent church and demanded that they be married, the church could say 'no' without the slightest fear of consequence, apart from perhaps the pastor being sued as an individual for discrimination or something like that.
This technique works for the slightly more liberal of churches, but those denominations that rely upon state registration shouldn't complain when it comes back and hits them in the face someday.
"When Christ returns, all governments will be under God's overseeing.
So it will be impossible to separate Church and State at that point."
If I may add: There will be no NEED to separate Church from State. The State will BE the Church, and vice versa. There will BE no other religions. Also, in regard to the topic:
'... in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage...' Matthew 22:30
P.S. I am not American. I'm not 100% certain of all the ins-and-outs of American law. :)
Second one.
I don't view it as entirely the church's fault here. If the government truly cared for Separation of Church and State, they would know better than to even attempt something like this. But they never cared much for what we thought in the first place.
Sued for discrimination is ridiculous if you ask me, since that's also challenging the people's beliefs and forcing them to either pay up for it or give in over something their faith demands of them.
From what I was taught and read in the Bible, the people who survive Armageddon and didn't give themselves over to the Beast God will spare. It is during that time in the Kingdom Age they will continue marriage and government. But under God's Leadership. Where else would be those legions of people "more than the sand on the seashore" (Revelation 20:8) who rebel against God at the end of the Kingdom Age?
Resurrected Saints and people who've gone to be with the Lord are incapable of rebellion do remember.
To be completely honest, that part of the thousand year reign has me a bit confused. I've never really spent much time studying it.
And by the way, people will sue you for anything if they feel their human rights have been sufficiently violated (lol), and it's especially visible in such active groups as LGBT.