Gay Episcopal bishop Says Civil and Religious Marriage Should Be Separate

Flag of the Episcopal Church which fragmented when one group decided to accept an openly gay bishop.

From the LA Times:

The first openly gay Episcopal bishop told a Studio City gathering today that the church should begin mending divisions over the issue of same-sex marriage by getting out of the civil marriage business altogether.

V. Eugene Robinson went on to say:

"In this country, it has become very confusing about where the civil action begins and ends and where the religious action begins and ends, because we have asked clergy to be agents of the state," said Robinson, the bishop of New Hampshire....

"The church is infringing on the secular society and trying to enforce its beliefs onto the entire culture," he said.

Robinson gets it wrong on two counts.

Marriage is a union between a man and a woman. The idea of same sex marriage is an attempt to redefine the institution into meaninglessness.

The church isn't infringing on secular society. Secular society is infringing on the church. When Robinson was accepted by some as an Episcopalian bishop and as openly gay, that is secularism infringing on the church. When gay activists try to force a redefinition of marriage into the institution, that is secularism infringing on the church.

Why are these folks surprised when the churches and conservatives fight back?