WASHINGTON -- A volatile mix of religion and politics is engulfing the national debate over who can marry, further shrinking the chances of agreement on that divisive issue.
Just as religious views on when life begins deepened the cultural war over abortion, the perception of marriage as a creation of God, reserved for a man and a woman, is deepening the conflict over the desire of homosexuals to gain the right to marry.
On one side of that divide, the view is that marriage was made in heaven and that its core meaning cannot change without defying God's law. On the other side, the notion is that marriage is a creation of the law and must evolve, as law always does, to accommodate social changes.
These apparently irreconcilable positions are being played out in California, where voters will decide Tuesday on Proposition 22, which would mandate under state law that marriage is for only "a man and a woman."
The ballot measure is intended to insulate California from having to recognize gay marriages, should other states allow them.
But this is not just a California issue. Across the country, the institution of marriage is under scrutiny as seldom before.
In Vermont, religion and politics will provide the backdrop as the state Legislature takes up a proposal next week to create a marriage-like alternative. The measure would recognize a "civil union" of a gay or lesbian couple, with all the benefits and legal obligations of marriage.
Members of the clergy could, if they wished, perform "civil union" ceremonies.
The political aspects of the same-sex marriage issue are complicating the discussion within religious denominations on whether to bless homosexual unions. Later this month, an organization of Reform Jewish rabbis, meeting in Greensboro, N.C., will take up that question when it responds to a proposal to "affirm" homosexual unions through a religious ritual.
In the next months, Episcopalians, Presbyterians and United Methodists appear likely to confront the same question, fraught with theological complications -- and political consequences.
In politics, in law and in the religious community, "the same-sex marriage debate turns ultimately on the nature of marriage itself," says the American Center for Law and Justice, which opposes same-sex marriage.
A religious perspective on "the nature of marriage" is expressed by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops: "Marriage is a faithful, exclusive, and lifelong union between one man and one woman -- a union established by God with its own proper laws."
