The whole gay marriage fight is a perfect example of how the failure to maintain the separation of church and state creates problems where they would not otherwise exist. The root of the problem is that the state currently treats marriage as both a civil and a religious institution. The reasonable solution would be for the state to confine itself to the legal rights and obligations of the civil institution. Basically this would be the "civil union" solution, but for everyone. That would leave the churches free to define the religious institution of marriage as they see fit without trampling on the rights of anyone else.
Ah, but that last bit - that's why the religious opponents of gay marriage would never stand for such a solution. Trampling the rights of others is the point. Destroying the separation of church and state is the goal. They're right when they say that the gay marriage issue is a slippery slope, but the slope is towards theocracy and they're pushing with everything they can find. Bigotry against homosexuals is just another tool for them.
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