Why does Christian rightwing decide marriage laws?

At a 2006 hearing on a proposed Maryland ban to prohibit gay marriage, Jamie Raskin, professor of law at American University testified against such a ban. At the end of his testimony, Republican State Senator Nancy Jacobs said: "Mr. Raskin, my Bible says marriage is only between a man and a woman. What do you have to say about that?"

Raskin replied: "Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible."

This is exactly right, we aren't a theocracy and we don't base our marriage laws on the religious beliefs of anyone, including the religious righwing.

The fact is, the religious rightwing still have a lot of power in America. In Tennessee, a school public school assistant principal terminated a gay pride event, because he believes that it promotes gay sex.

The religious rightwing can't form any actual arguments against marriage equality for gays, so they have to equate same sex marriages to marrying farm animals, trees or small children. This excellent column in Slate takes on the many problems with the slippery slope arguments. Gay marriage should be opposed or supported based on its' own merits. I wonder though those who say gay marriage will lead to new type of marriages, would they have used that to oppose interracial marriages? But of course they would have.

Bernie Goldberg, no liberal, takes on the bigotry of the religious rightwing head on in this interview by Bill O'Reilly. He stated:

"There’s something that needs to be said, no matter how uncomfortable it may make some people who are listening to us: There is a strain of bigotry — and that’s the word I want to use — running through conservative America. "It doesn’t mean that all conservatives are bigots or even that most conservatives are bigots. That’s not what I’m saying. There’s a strain of bigotry, and it goes against gay people, for instance. Ellen DeGeneres did nothing wrong. She’s gay. Reasonable people may disagree on gay marriage. That’s fine. But to call on somebody’s dismissal, to be fired, to lose her job because she’s gay is bigotry."

He also pointed out the strain of bigotry on the right against black people in the 1960s. I myself would state that more specifically, the rightwing of that time (no matter what political party) that was to blame was the religious right-wing. They opposed the right of women to vote a century ago and have opposed all progress throughout our nation's history. Goldberg said he is sick of this bigotry, so am I.