OK. First, private institutions cannot do whatever they want. The civil rights act outlines that discrimination based on race, gender, or ethnicity is illegal. Granted, sexual preference is not included there, the supreme court ruled that discrimination in private institutions is only permitted when the expressive message (or as I said, the essence of the church) of the institution is altered.

I understand that christianity is not monolithic, but I know for a fact that many churches claiming to take the bible literally engage in these practices. I can show you articles if you'd like. Not all churches as I said engage in these practices, but some do. And some of those churches do still believe that wedding vows are sacred, and premarital sex is a sin.

The difference is that they acknowledge that sin is a part of life. Something that we will continue to do, despite our best efforts. Now, maybe it's that we subconsciously don't try hard enough to alter our behavior or it REALLY is impossible to not sin, either way, people continue to sin and continue to ask forgiveness.

I recognize that there are some homosexuals who believe that what they are doing isn't wrong at all. Those would be the homosexuals who do not take the whole of the bible literally or those who think the volume of material in the bible dedicated to accepting outcasts and sinners outweighs the few lines condemning homosexuals. But I would also expect few of those homosexuals to want to be married in the church.

Some homosexuals, not an immense number, may want to marry under god. They may feel that what they are doing isn't the way god created things or how people were MEANT to be (note that I do NOT believe this in any way). So they still want to be married under the church, acknowledging that they may be sinning, but trying to be better people in spite of that. They may not be going about that in the best way. But not all of us go about reforming ourselves in the best ways possible either.

I see your points about the word of god saying homosexuality is a sin and that gay marriage is wrong. But the expressive message of christianity isn't altered in marrying two sinners that happen to be homosexual.