Australia legalizes same sex marriage

[Locknuts]

Pemalite said:

Locknuts said:

Wow ok so I should be able to clear this up pretty quickly: I don't want the government involved in my marriage and I don't want to give them any more power than they already have. A major part of what makes me conservative is that I want small government. I believe that the government is already so big and powerful that our current system is unsustainable and thus: broken.

Any opportunity to give the government more power than the unsustainable amount they already have will be met with a 'no' vote from me. Whether it's involving them further with people's relationships or increasing handouts, it's always a no until the government is small enough.

Changing the entire legal and legislative structure for marriage because you don't agree with it... Is not "Conservative" by it's very definition as you are advocating change from a precedent that has already existed for hundreds of years and works fine as it is.

Besides... Australia is a secular nation, religion should have less power and influence over aspects of Australia, not more.
Well. Not until they can actually prove their particular deity exists anyway... And after thousands of years, that hasn't occurred.

Well I believe in minimum government necessary. Just because I am conservative doesn't mean I will fight change under all circumstances. In fact I will embrace change if it means giving the government less power over people's lives. It rarely seems to go that way though.

I was thinking today about the stolen generation and how the solution was not to allow the government to take children from white families, but instead to stop government interference in people's relationships, because even when the government means well, they usually get it wrong. The more power they have: the more damage they do.

On the issue of religious institutions having power, their power would only be cultural in nature. A separation of church and state ensures that there cannot be legal punishments for religious 'sins'. I don't want government influencing our nations' culture. The culture should develop naturally and government should simply represent those views. I could get into the ways in which christian values have improved western society, but that's a topic for another time. I don't believe that Jesus was the son of an actual God, but that doesn't mean his teachings weren't incredibly important in shaping the civilisation with the highest standards of living and longest life expectancy in human history.