Not for the Faint of Heart

WARNING!
Do not read this if you are easily offended.

One of the issues I had always had with the Catholic church was what I perceived to be it's stance on gay marriage.  The problem with this is that my perception was not based on actual fact.  Like most lazy people I hadn't bothered to research the idea behind the stance, I just took what seemed most reasonable from what I had heard from others.  The problem with that is what you hear from others is generally not reliable, sometimes not reasonable, and most always not educated (not to say that people are unintelligent, the majority just don't do their homework).  The lesson here is to always find out for yourself; simply taking someone's word on something is not a great idea.

I know more about the Catholic view of gay marriage than when I started down this road, but I'm not nearly as articulate with it as they are here.  I have to say that all the bigoted 'Christians' that take such an emotionally charged, defensive stance in the argument are actually hurting the church rather than helping (so cut it out, would you?) and there seems to be an inordinate amount of them.  These people are where my view of Catholicism and gay marriage became skewed.

My take on the church's view:
Gay marriage is not condoned because it is not conducive to creating a family.  In fact, you physically cannot have children, thus consummation of said marriage becomes sinful.  This is a simple way of looking at it with A+B=C logic.  It's not filled with hate, or bigotry.  The church is not hateful or bigoted, it's only some of the people in the church (this is the same argument I used to counter "the church condones the diddling of little boys").  The problem is those few hateful and bigoted are - more often than not - the loudest.

To be clear:
I do believe that gay marriage should be a civil right on the basis that I have no right to deprive someone else of the rights I enjoy because of some difference in life.  If the church won't accept gay marriage as a sacrament (and I don't think it should be forced to do so), that's okay.  The church doesn't accept divorce, nor should it.  So what's the difference?

Do I think gay marriage is a bad idea?  Well, that's a hard question to answer.  There is no definitive data on either side.  Yes, there are videos:

I would be lying if I said this video doesn't touch me.  I am for gay couples being able to adopt, because a (healthy) home with two mothers or fathers is better than no home at all.  The argument that gay couples would raise a child horribly is ridiculous.  What about all the 'normal' homes that have failed so utterly - work in a public school system and tell me otherwise, but that's a whole different can of worms - in raising their children?
But then there are arguments like this.  This man raises some very valid points.
However, I hold that among my God-given rights, depriving others of said rights is conspicuously missing.

Also, is it right to say that two people being in love is wrong?  Can you say that with any merit?  Can you even know that the love they hold is not pure?  The answer to these for me is 'no,' I cannot do any of those things, and how is a love that God created wrong?  God created the world and He created homosexuality, so how can it be so terrible?  There must be some purpose for it.

Young and Catholic quotes Steve Gershom:
Is it hard to be gay and Catholic? Yes, because like everybody, I sometimes want things that are not good for me. The Church doesn’t let me have those things, not because she’s mean, but because she’s a good mother. If my son or daughter wanted to eat sand I’d tell them: that’s not what eating is for; it won’t nourish you; it will hurt you. Maybe my daughter has some kind of condition that makes her like sand better than food, but I still wouldn’t let her eat it. Actually, if she was young or stubborn enough, I might not be able to reason with her — I might just have to make a rule against eating sand. Even if she thought I was mean.

I find understanding in the analogy he uses, which incites a commentary on society:
We are bent on not following rules.  As addressed here, a religion without rules is a rather droll religion, as a game without rules eliminates the game.  We've devolved from our emotionally stronger ancestors (those who could 'suffer' an arranged marriage, or fight through the dormancy of their love) with our current pursuit of pleasure.  Society says pain is bad; to be avoided at all costs.  Heaven forbid your life is hard.
We're a bunch of whiny little sots.

Which brings me to my last point:
Divorce did more harm to the family than gay marriage could possibly ever do.  Maybe I'm being a bit short-sighted here, but from where I'm standing, being able to divorce willy-nilly is, quite possibly, the most terrible thing humans could have done to the sacrament that is marriage.  Hands down.

But that's just my opinion.
And a disjointed one at that.