@Miss Panda: Your rejoinder fails to address the crux of my argument, but I admit I should have been more clear. First off, civil unions are hardly a sign of "equality before the state". They cannot transcend most state borders in the US and in some of the worst cases employers will refuse to recognize the union, despite its state-sanctioned status. If you Google this in regards to New Jersey, a whole plethora of uncomfortable stories come up. Civil unions and the state have proven to be nearly useless in addressing the struggle for gay equality because they are bound hand-and-foot by concessions to the Catholic Church. That having been said, why not simply make civil unions equal with that of religious marriage? It will not happen under capitalism, because making civil unions equal with religious marriage would make them a competitive option, which the Church will not allow.
As for your second point, I find your analogy to be nearly ahistorical. It's true that the USSR had suppressed the Russian Orthodox Church (I cannot respond in regard to China, since I have little knowledge of China). Unfortunately, the reason why it was suppressed requires a bit more explanation than being a symptom of "great murderous dictatorships". The Russian Orthodox Church had openly collaborated with the forces of capitalist restoration (the Whites) during the Russian Civil War. Before that, they collaborated with the feudal Tsarist regimes which aimed to terrorize the proletariat using a terror group called the "Black Hundreds." The catalyst was probably set when Lenin made his Separation of Church and State law in 1918, which deprived them of property and stripped them of their state privileges. In my opinion it is entirely appropriate that the Church was suppressed. This is not because I am opposed to freedom of religion (and I'm not), but because the Church has typically been used as an instrument of right wing reaction in service to the capitalists in secular affairs; a glance at the Vatican's vacillation with Hitler is enough to show this. Their record against fascism is one of vacillation and pussyfooting; they were fully informed of the Nazi holocaust and did nothing. In short, the so-called religious freedom drum that the Catholic Church has beat bloody has interfered completely with social and secular demands. Stalin later rehabilitated the Orthodox Church in his campaign to reshape the USSR in the name of national chauvinism.
Today, the Church is attempting to come to terms with gay marriage by holding a monopoly on all of the social benefits that it allows in its own nuptial law. It has already been shown that civil unions are incapable of combating this monopoly. In continuing this the Church is not merely practicing its "religious views", but using their religion as a shield to deprive homosexuals of the social rights which the state has no interest in giving up, since they are basically in cahoots. I will be blunt. The inequality of civil unions and religious marriages is a classic example of the "separate but equal" jargon employed by the segregationists during the struggle for black civil rights. They are both part of a broader struggle against all social inequality as the economy worsens and the workers are deprived of what little they have left. Allowing this to fester is a violation of one of the most progressive constitutional tenets that the American bourgeoisie has already repeatedly trampled upon: the separation of church and state. The Catholic Church has no right to keep for itself that which should be accessible to everyone.
As for your second point, I find your analogy to be nearly ahistorical. It's true that the USSR had suppressed the Russian Orthodox Church (I cannot respond in regard to China, since I have little knowledge of China). Unfortunately, the reason why it was suppressed requires a bit more explanation than being a symptom of "great murderous dictatorships". The Russian Orthodox Church had openly collaborated with the forces of capitalist restoration (the Whites) during the Russian Civil War. Before that, they collaborated with the feudal Tsarist regimes which aimed to terrorize the proletariat using a terror group called the "Black Hundreds." The catalyst was probably set when Lenin made his Separation of Church and State law in 1918, which deprived them of property and stripped them of their state privileges. In my opinion it is entirely appropriate that the Church was suppressed. This is not because I am opposed to freedom of religion (and I'm not), but because the Church has typically been used as an instrument of right wing reaction in service to the capitalists in secular affairs; a glance at the Vatican's vacillation with Hitler is enough to show this. Their record against fascism is one of vacillation and pussyfooting; they were fully informed of the Nazi holocaust and did nothing. In short, the so-called religious freedom drum that the Catholic Church has beat bloody has interfered completely with social and secular demands. Stalin later rehabilitated the Orthodox Church in his campaign to reshape the USSR in the name of national chauvinism.
Today, the Church is attempting to come to terms with gay marriage by holding a monopoly on all of the social benefits that it allows in its own nuptial law. It has already been shown that civil unions are incapable of combating this monopoly. In continuing this the Church is not merely practicing its "religious views", but using their religion as a shield to deprive homosexuals of the social rights which the state has no interest in giving up, since they are basically in cahoots. I will be blunt. The inequality of civil unions and religious marriages is a classic example of the "separate but equal" jargon employed by the segregationists during the struggle for black civil rights. They are both part of a broader struggle against all social inequality as the economy worsens and the workers are deprived of what little they have left. Allowing this to fester is a violation of one of the most progressive constitutional tenets that the American bourgeoisie has already repeatedly trampled upon: the separation of church and state. The Catholic Church has no right to keep for itself that which should be accessible to everyone.
