Consistency

I've seen >numerous posts (amoung others) on this article from FoxNews regarding the slow removal of traditional wedding vows:

In some weddings, "'til death do us part" is going the way of "to honor and obey" — that is, out the window.

Vows like "For as long as we continue to love each other," "For as long as our love shall last" and "Until our time together is over" are increasingly replacing the traditional to-the-grave vow — a switch that some call realistic and others call a recipe for failure.

It wasn't until I saw Fr. Tucker's reaction until I thought I should post something, as the "thought experiment" he writes provides an extremely compelling argument on consistency on the "marriage debate":

Why is this sort of thing not provoking all sorts of outrage, petitions to Congress, proposed Constitutional amendments, and so forth? Why aren't all the marriage defenders picketing city hall on this? Why should my tax dollars be spent on government recognition of these kinds of unions, which I'm morally opposed to and aren't really marriages at all? If one's going to be consistent on the civil marriage question, it seems to me that one should oppose (or support, or ignore) legal recognition of these sorts of heterosexual unions with the same vehemence (or lack thereof) as one opposes (or supports, or ignores) legal recognition of homosexual unions. The same thing goes for the strings of divorces and remarriages, or for unions that deliberately exclude children, or for "open" marriages where both parties are free to be as unfaithful as they please. It doesn't make sense to rail about two men getting married up in Massachusetts, while winking at these civilly-approved parodies for the simple fact that they are contracted by people of opposite sexes. Give them both a pass, condemn them both, or get the government out of the approval business altogether. But at least be consistent.

For the record, I'm beginning to lean towards the latter option of getting the government out of the marriage discussion altogether.